The 88th Academy Award ceremony has sparked heated debate with accusations that Hollywood has a diversity problem. In a repeat of last year, none of the 25 nominees for the five main categories were black actors, actresses or directors. The African-American community, with historical ties to slavery and segregation, has led civil rights movements for several decades. Oscar-nominated director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith - who are black - will not attend the ceremony. A call to boycott the awards spread over social networks under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Do the Academy Awards favour white over black? To provide our readers with an objective analysis we have represented the stalls of a hypothetical Oscars ceremony bringing together all the nominees in its history for the five major categories.
