Opinion piece: Why the Academy are racist for snubbing Selma

Guests of the Academy - overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male - took their seats at the opulent Dolby Theater in California to witness the announcement of the nominations for the 77th Oscars. When they were over, they continued chewing on their steaks and clinking their champagne glasses, oblivious to the racism hanging heavy in the air: Ava DuVernay's astonishing drama Selma, a biopic of Martin Luther King, had been snubbed - proof positive once and for all that the Academy is institutionally racist.