Hollywood, Change is Here

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Movies released during the past several years and the announcement of the 83rd Academy Awards® nominations, prove Hollywood has not seen–or maybe has not read–the news lately. There is little evidence Hollywood fully understands how much the world has and continues to change. It is far more diverse. The lack of diverse images in mostly male produced Hollywood movies resulted in primarily men of one ethnicity receiving a majority of the Oscar nominations. Women did get nominated in the expected categories–best actress and supporting actress–and a sprinkle of other areas. The women, too, represented primarily one ethnicity. The most diversity appeared in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Change is here. The most powerful man in the world, President Obama, and the richest woman in the entertainment business, Oprah, are African-Americans. Hispanics are the fastest growing U.S. population according to the recent census. America’s narrative includes the stories of Native Americans, Asian Americans and heritages linked to the Caribbean, Cuba and the Pacific Islands as well as Europe. Worldwide women serve as heads of state in many countries. According to The Nielsen Company, women control almost $12 trillion of the $18 trillion in global spending.

We live in a much more multicultural country and world then existed when the first movies were being made. The other Hollywoods, Bollywood in India and Africa’s Nollywood, cater to their varied movie-loving public with very lucrative results. They get it. People still love being entertained, seduced and mesmerized by motion pictures. They still have heightened appetites for movies. In 2011, with exposure to so much more, movie tastes have expanded from bland to spicy and from vanilla only to multiple flavors. Portraying a variety of genres, cultures, and communities in movies will satisfy audiences, financially gratify studios and even reap rewards on Oscar night.

By 2020, only 30 percent of the households in the United States will have kids and most of them will be multicultural according to Nielsen research. Therefore, Hollywood has less than ten years to produce more movies with people who look like and have experiences reflective of the changing American and global families. There are a wealth of untold stories from all communities still to be told, countless characters in all hues to be created and innumerable adventures to entertain us with on the big screen. Hollywood still has an opportunity to take a risk of award-winning proportions and reinvent itself by producing and releasing more movies for our fast changing 21st century audiences. Will change change Hollywood?