Oscars head vows to 'shake-up' Academy after Hollywood stars call for boycott

The President of the Academy Awards has vowed to "shake-up" the Oscars in the wake of strong criticism from Hollywood stars over its failure to nominate a single black actor for the second year running.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs has promised an examination of the Academy after film director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith said they would boycott this year's ceremony.

ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore reports:

Isaacs acknowledged she was "disappointed" that all 20 acting nominees were white and promised to "continue the conversation" on diversity.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs said she was disappointed that all 20 Oscars nominees for acting were white. Credit: Reuters

Film director Spike Lee - who was given an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November - said in a post on social media he "cannot support" the "lily white" Oscars.

Lee noted that he was writing on Martin Luther King Jr Day said he was fed up: "Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all," he wrote. "We can't act?!"

Lee's own movie, the Chicago gang violence hip-hop musical Chi-Raq - celebrated by some and scorned by others - went unnoticed in this year's nominations.

Read more: Idris Elba highlights lack of diversity in the TV industry

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In a video message on Facebook, Pinkett Smith also said she would not attend or watch the Oscars in February.

Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith was not nominated for his performance in the NFL head trauma drama Concussion, said it was time for people of colour to disregard the Academy Awards.

"Begging for acknowledgement, or even asking, diminishes dignity and diminishes power," Pinkett Smith said. "And we are a dignified people and we are powerful."

She added: "Let's let the academy do them, with all grace and love. And let's do us differently."

The video has already amassed 4.5 million views.

Even presenter of the February 28 broadcast, Chris Rock, has criticised the lack of diversity, branding the Oscars on Twitter as the "White BET (Black Entertainment Television) Awards".

Many had predicted nominations for Idris Elba for Beasts Of No Nation and Benicio Del Toro for Sicario.

The NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton also failed to earn a best picture nomination, despite some predictions that it would.

Director Ryan Coogler's acclaimed Rocky sequel Creed scored only one nomination - for Sylvester Stallone.