#OscarsSoAgeist

Over the years, Academy Awards have been a part of many controversies like #OscarsSoWhite.

But according to a new study, the ages of characters in best picture nominees suggest that there is a lack of representation who are over 60 years of age.

A new study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, saw the spread of ages in character over 25 best picture nominees from past three years.

The research found that fewer than 12 per cent of 1,256 named characters were of age 60 sixty or older. While the same group accounts for 19 per cent of the population and 14 per cent of movie ticket buyers.

“When we think about diversity, we often talk about including the usual suspects of race, gender, sexual orientation and people with disabilities, but age is often left out of the conversation. It’s a missed opportunity for Hollywood. These are people with disposable income and time on their hands to view and stream and download films,” said Stacy smith, the study’s co-author.

The study also revealed the degrading attitude towards senior citizens in the movies that were studied.

Six of the 14 movies that featured a main lead or supporting senior actor included obscene comments such as characters saying to one another, “just sit here and let Alzheimer’s run its course”. Another sentence included was, “mentally feeble, sick old ladies”.

They found out that these kinds of sentences have a harming effect on well being of the older people.

This year, the closest the study could find was Denzel Washington in Fences – but although the actor was 60 when he was shooting, the character he plays is 53.

The actors and roles that did qualify were predominantly male and Caucasian. Of the 148 characters in the best picture nominees, 77.7 per cent were men and 89.9 per cent white. The remaining ethnic breakdown was 6.1 per cent black and 2 per cent Asian. No Latino or Hispanic character over 60 was recorded. — ANI