Opinion | The 2020 Oscar nominations didn’t have to look like this

Once again, the Oscar nominees are extremely white, and important categories like best director, extremely male. But it doesn’t have to be that way, especially after a year like 2019 that was full of outstanding work by women and people of color. Let’s imagine an alternate history of the 2020 Academy Award nominations announced this morning.

As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its 2020 Oscar nominations on Monday, Hollywood braced for another extremely bad news cycle.

There was already sniping when Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver were announced as the presenters of the 92nd Academy Award nominees. Many critics suggested that their selection was a paper-thin cover for the Academy’s ongoing failure to appreciate the talents of actors of European descent and a preemptive attempt to obscure another year with no white nominees in the major categories.