08 February 2016
Newsdesk
Emma Thompson has waded in on the Oscars race row, labelling the lack of diversity in Hollywood "pathetic".
The 56-year-old actress took home the Award for Comedy at the Evening Standard Film Awards in London on Sunday night (07Feb16), and she dedicated her gong to her late Love Actually co-star and good friend Alan Rickman.
As she spoke to reporters after the ceremony, Emma revealed her strong feelings about the fact that not one black actor or crew member was recognised in the nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards.
"It's awful at the moment, really, really bad," Emma told television show Good Morning Britain. "No, I think it's pathetic actually - I don't think we are doing well enough at all."
Emma's comments came as Idris Elba took home the Best Actor Evening Standard Film Awards gong for his role in Beasts of No Nation - despite not having received an Oscar nomination for the film. Taking to the stage to accept his prize, Idris credited the movie's crew for making it such a success.
"(Director) Cary Fukunaga is half-Japanese, half-American, the film crew are both Ghanaian and New York (sic), the money came from all over the world, and that is f**king diversity," he said.
Charlotte Rampling famously has some very different views to Idris about the Oscars race row, causing controversy when she said the debate was actually "racist to white people" - comments she later clarified by stating she meant all performances should be judged on merit alone.
However, her 45 Years co-star Tom Courtenay, who accepted the Editor's Award for the movie, said that while the actress couldn't attend the awards because she was in America, she would have been "absolutely delighted that Idris won the award tonight".
Other winners at the event included Best Actress for Dame Maggie Smith thanks to her role in The Lady in The Van. It is the fourth time Maggie has taken home the accolade, but the latest prize comes 37 years after she last won it for California Suite.
Brooklyn won the prestigious Best Film award while Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams was crowned Rising Star.
