In 2015 and 2016, the Oscars saw entirely white acting nominees.
In response, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - the organisation that votes on the Oscars - aggressively tried to diversify its membership base, but in 2020 - yes, just last year - the awards barely escaped a repeat of those years, thanks to a single non-white acting nomination for Harriet star Cynthia Erivo.
#OscarsSoWhite, indeed.
Watch: Chris Rock's opening monologue at the 2016 Oscars. Post continues below video.
Thankfully, 2021's nominations look different.
For the first time in the Academy Awards' history, two women - Nomadland's Chloe Zhao and Promising Young Woman's Emerald Fennell - have been nominated in the best director category. Zhao also became the first non-white woman to score a nom.
For the Oscars, a more representative membership base leads to more representative nominations which leads to more representative winners.
In September 2020, the Academy announced new standards for films to be eligible in the Best Picture category.
From 2024, a movie can qualify by meeting standards for on-screen racial diversity, which means featuring under-represented groups through a non-white major actor, through 30 per cent of its ensemble, or in the story itself. It can also become eligible based on the diversity of not just its cast and crew, but the studio's marketing team, executive leadership, and internship programs.
The requirements are so lenient that honestly, it would be embarrassing for any film not to meet them. But what it also does is hand responsibility back to the studios, encouraging a wider range of voices across the entirety of the film industry.
They can't look at one wonderfully diverse Oscars and wash their hands of it, 'job done'. The job's far from done.
What celebrations of diversity also do is remind us that these nominations - a list of people who more accurately than usual reflect the industry they work in - are milestones at all.
We should celebrate these Oscar nominations.
But here's hoping there's a time in the not-to-distant future where we won't have to, because it's just the norm.
Feature image: Getty.