The Oscars Go to…(Almost) All White People

In the Academy Awards' 83-year-history, only 1 percent of nominees have been Asian.

By Jorge Rivas Feb 28, 2011

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards that aired on ABC Sunday night included no winners of color in the major actor categories, however Asian-Australian author, illustrator and filmmaker Shaun Tan took home an Oscar for best short animated film for ‘The Lost Thing.’

Audrey Marrs, who’s mother Mariko is a native of Japan, also won a feature documentary Oscar for her film ‘Inside Job.’* 

The show also included a few presenters of color: Jennifer Hudson, Halle Berry, Oprah Winfrey and Javier Bardem– but a few Colorlines.com com mentors have argued Bardem "doesn’t count" because he originates from Spain.

Angry Asian Man points out other Asian faces who didn’t make it to stage last night:

I was rooting for Ruby Yang’s short documentary The Warriors of Qiugang and Black Swan cinematographer Matthew J. Libatique, but it was not meant to be. But hey, congratulations to The King’s Speech, the Caucasianest movie of the year.

Libatique, who is Filipino American and a frequent collaborator with Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, did pick up the trophy for Best Cinematography on Saturday at the Independent Spirit Awards, so big props for that.

In the Academy Awards 83-year-history, only 1 percent of nominees have been Asian. Check out Mun2 infographic slideshow illustrating some hard Oscar facts:


*A previous version of this post failed to include Audrey Marrs’ Oscar win.