The Oscars, the most famous film awards in the world, will be presented in Los Angeles this weekend. The topic of diversity now plays an important role – thanks to many debates, the work of activists and social media campaigns such as #OscarsSoWhite.
This year, the Oscar nominations have also fueled the discussion about diversity in the media and film industry in Germany. The reason: The nominations of actress Sandra Hülser and director Wim Wenders were celebrated by leading media, while the nomination of German director İlker Çatak for his film “The Teacher’s Room” was often only mentioned in passing. He then spoke of ignorance, exclusion and racism.
This episode is about the background to his allegations: the lack of diversity in the German film industry. Studies show that the proportion of people with an immigrant background in film and television is far from reflecting our diverse society. What ideas and plans are there to change that? How do you prevent actors with an immigration background from ending up in typical cliché roles? And what significance does diversity in film have for our coexistence?
SZ journalist Nils Minkmar talks about this with Tyron Ricketts – actor, producer and committed to more diversity in the film industry for decades. Most recently, he shaped the Grimme Prize-nominated Disney+ series “Sam – Ein Sachse” as executive producer, creator, author and actor.
“quoted. der medienpodcast” is a format from CIVIS Medienstiftung and Süddeutscher Zeitung, funded by Stiftung Mercator.
Left:
Series “Sam – A Saxon” on Disney+
Director İlker Çatak on ZEIT Online, guest article “Rejoiced too early”