He also believes that the overall problem won’t go away anytime soon because the infrastructure that led to #OscarsSoWhite and a predominance of white male filmmakers is still very much in place. There will be moments such as this year’s crop of nominees, but it may also provide “a false sense of the strides that are being made.”
He points out, “Until there is a general consensus that we are going to intentionally continue to make sure that people from all backgrounds continue to be represented, and forget the awards, the very influential medium that is film then I think we are, we will not yet be being the best of what we could and should be.”
Oyelowo saw first hand how hard it was for his friend Ava Duvernay, who first directed him in “Middle of Nowhere,” to get a chance with a major studio after winning the directing prize at Sundance in 2012. While DuVernay (and other female filmmakers) lobbied for great opportunities other white male Sundance alums with less celebrated films at the festival were going on to direct Hollywood tent poles. In fact, he bluntly admits he had to lobby fairly hard for her to direct “Selma,” a film that eventually earned a Best Picture nomination.
“Honestly, what we say has very little bearing on change. It’s what we do that’s going to make this thing turn around,” Oyelowo says. “That’s what I’m trying to do, is not just talk about it, but do something about it. It has to be an industry-wide intentional thing. I think in 2015, and you know these stats probably more than me, but in 2015 of the top 250 grossing films in Hollywood only 9% of those were made by women. It dropped to 7% last year. We are regressing. We’re not improving.”
And like many who take this year’s nominations with a “let’s wait and see what happens in 2018” approach, Oyelowo is well aware of the recent cyclical trends where Hollywood may think it’s doing “just enough” to be truly inclusive.
“So yes, I am encouraged by this year we’re in, but we had a pretty good year about three years ago. We had ‘12 Years A Slave,’ ‘Fruitvale Station,’ ‘Mandela’ and ‘The Butler,’” Oyelowo says. “15 years before then we had Denzel and Halle Berry both winning Oscars and then there was a dearth. So we just cannot afford to think that a good moment means that we have a genuine movement on our hands. It’s going to take supreme vigilance on everyone’s parts to make sure that we don’t have to have this perpetual, cyclical, annoying conversation every year.”
“A United Kingdom” opens in limited release in New York and Los Angeles.