Your weekend long reads 🗞️
Good morning, friends of The Short List! It's John, bringing you some of the best of the week's journalism from the USA TODAY Network.
Coming Sunday night is the crown jewel of awards shows: The Oscars! Amid COVID-19 protocols and probably a lot of masks, the 93rd Academy Awards will be handed out to host of movies that never made it into theaters. Chloe Zhao's road-trip "Nomadland" leads a wide-ranging field of best picture candidates, and late beloved actor Chadwick Boseman seems poised to receive a posthumous best actor award. (Or will it be Anthony Hopkins?)
Last September, in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite scandal of years past, the academy announced it would implement new diversity and inclusion standards for the best picture race in 2024. This week's long reads examine how Hollywood is doing on the diversity front. How much progress has really been made?
- Oscars report card: Would this year’s best picture nominees meet 2024 inclusion standards?
- How real inclusion can happen – and how the Oscars can help
- What's an Oscar really worth? Career boost is 'not the same' for Black actors, experts say
We hope you'll tune in to our Oscars coverage Sunday night! And do check out the rest of the long reads below.