The Oscars award ceremony is making its presence on the internet again. Hosted by talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony will happen on March 12, 2023, at 5:00 pm PDT. Despite the enthusiasm and attention that this ceremony receives, it has recently received backlash for its lack of ethnic diversity. For such a significant award, the percentage of nominees for people of color has only reached a small total of 6%. For this month’s 95th ceremony, the total nominees for women have been 17% - 2% being a woman of color. This leads to the speculation that there is just not enough or fair representation of different ethnicities around the world. These statistics are similar to the problem with the Grammys. Equally underrepresented, people of color are not as shown in this award show. The public took notice of this and provided much appreciation and support from the public as they tried to make sense of the unequal cultural diversity. These mainstream awards have acknowledged this public outrage and explained that they would get better with the representation. Despite their agreement, the award ceremonies have only made actions in name only. Because of this, the public responded that these shows only care about their reputation and wealth.

This Sunday, Michelle Yeoh - an actress in the movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once” - has been nominated in the best actress category, which if she wins, will make her the first Asian winner in that category. Yeoh is thankful for this recognition but admits that it took her decades to get where she is today. She expresses that getting a large diversity of roles is difficult for her and her race as a whole. She explains that getting opportunities for different ranges of characters is rare. This statement supports the idea that there is not enough diversity in the film industry, at least for Yeoh. When asked about her opinion on this matter, Sydney Fong - a junior at Yorba Linda High School - explains that “representation matters” and it took way too long for award shows to realize that. Sydney adds on and explains that “Ke Huy Quan was talking about how it took him 38 years to get a job because no one wanted a Chinese-Vietnamese person in their film.” Similarly, another junior at Yorba Linda High School, Lancy Shi, explains that “the diversity has improved tremendously since the release of movies such as “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” but” she does “wish more minority groups can win in major categories instead of just the special “international” categories.” Likewise, Kaylyn Kim, a junior at Sunny Hills High School, believes that “the only time” she “felt represented…was through Squid Game.” All of these opinions show that clearly, award ceremonies need to try harder to be more inclusive. 

All in all, let’s hope that in the future, these ceremonies will show light to more ethnicities.