More Hollywood names have lent their support to the campaign over the apparent lack of diversity at the Academy Awards, including Oscar winners George Clooney, Lupita Nyong'o and director Steve McQueen.
The Oscar nominees announced last week included no black or minority performers or themed movies for a second straight year, leading to the revival of the Twitter feed #OscarsSoWhite.
George Clooney has weighed in on the controversy, saying that "We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it".
He told Variety that African Americans "have a real fair point that the industry isn't representing them well enough", and said that Creed, Concussion, Beasts of No Nation and Straight Outta Compton should have received more nominations.
Lupita Nyong'o also said she is "disappointed by the lack of inclusion" in the nominations. The star, who won a Best Supporting Actress Award for 12 Years a Slave said on Instagram that she was standing with "my peers who are calling for change."
British Director McQueen, who was nominated for the Best Director for 12 Years A Slave, said: "I think racism has a lot to do with it, but also the whole idea of people not being adventurous enough in thinking outside of the box as such."
Yesterday director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith said they will not attend next month's Oscars ceremony in protest over the lack of diversity. Spike Lee said he cannot support the "lily white" awards show.
#OscarsSoWhite... Again. I Would Like To Thank President Cheryl Boone Isaacs And The Board Of… https://t.co/584WXHYutt
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) January 18, 2016
She said that "begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power."
The head of the Oscars, Cheryl Boone Isaacs (who ironically is African-American) acknowledged that more needed to be done to improve diversity and said she was "heartbroken and frustrated" about the lack of inclusion in this years nominees.
She said that "dramatic steps" were now being taken, to improve the membership of the voting academy. "In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond."
Isaacs added, "As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly."
