“They say if you want to have a good friend, you have to be a good friend,” “Flamin’ Hot” star Annie Gonzalez tells TODAY.com about diverse communities coming together to celebrate historic nominations at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Gonzalez, along with Diana Maria Riva, Jenny Yang, Julissa Calderon, Lisa Vidal and Sarah Jones, co-hosted the inaugural Oscars Unity Party on March 10 at NeueHouse Hollywood, where actors, activists and artists watched the Oscars in celebration of their peers’ achievements.
“All of these beautiful people here, we’re not just colleagues. We’re friends and family who support each other deeply because the work that we do is so rooted in something spiritual, something so much bigger than ourselves. So what is that if not community?” Gonzalez says.
The 2024 Oscars had a slew of historic nominees. To name a few, “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone became the first Native American woman to be nominated in the lead actress category and “Rustin” star Colman Domingo was the second openly-gay man nominated for playing a gay character.
“American Fiction” stars Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown nominations are the first time Black actors in the lead and supporting category, respectively, were nominated for their work on the same film.
The Latinx House, an organization created to support and celebrate the Latino community, teamed up with the Blackhouse Foundation, Gold House, Hispanic Heritage Foundation Harness, IllumiNative, NAACP, and more. Each organization amplifies Black, Asian, Indigenous and other communities’ voices in and around Hollywood.
“As houses, we have made a commitment to one another like, yeah, we want to bring our community together, but we also want to be celebrating each other’s wins,” Latinx House co-founder Mónica Ramírez explains. “And the other thing is, we don’t want anyone to pit us against each other. Events like this are really significant because we’re sending a message that we have each other’s back.”
Diversity and inclusivity is an important topic in Hollywood. As shows centering around people of color like “The Brothers Sun,” “Gordita Chronicles” and “Rap Sh!t” get canceled, the people in front and behind the screens are hoping executives and studio heads take risks and chances on their stories.
“The Oscars unity watch party is all about what it means to show solidarity with each other, to uplift each other and strengthen each other because we are in this fight together,” Yang, who starred in Netflix’s “The Brothers Sun,” says. “Any progress we’ve made has not been given to us without energy and, unfortunately, some level of raising our voices to be like, ‘This is wrong and you have to do something about it.’ And that requires support with each other, not just within our own individual communities.”
While there has been some progress, much more needs to be done. The 11th annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, released in early March, showed for the first time ever that the movies with the most diverse casts made up many of 2023’s top films. According to the Hollywood Diversity Report 2024, Part I, movies like “Creed III,” “Scream VI” and “John Wick: Chapter 4” had “50 percent or more actors of color” and “posted the highest earnings in their film series.”
Inside the Oscars Unity Party, a variety of foods from different cultures were served. Eric Michael Hernandez did a special performance ahead of the best actress in a leading role category. Political artist Ernesto Yerena was also on hand to sign and give out his America Ferrera and Gladstone posters he created for the event and the actors' nominations.
He created the pieces, he says, “To celebrate a moment,” and the powerful women who mean so much to their communities.
“A lot of the time, turquoise represents indigenous roots,” he says,” adding that the red-orange side “brings out the feminine connection.”
“They’re supposed to work together,” Yerena explains of the artwork. “The rose (on Ferrera’s poster is) for dignity and the eagle (on Gladstone’s) is to represent the indigenous ancestors.”
As people of color were announced on stage during their categories, took home Oscars, performed and presented, the crowd inside the party cheered each and every one. Following the three-and-a-half-hour ceremony, it became a dance party with everyone taking the dance floor and celebrating another year of film excellence and new connections.
The Oscars Unity Party was just one of many future events the houses hope to have in the future.
“The message for tonight is that we’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” Calderon says. “I think we’re seeing that at the Oscars themselves. We’re having the representation and I think we’re just growing. That is what’s beautiful. Baby steps. I feel like we’re a little behind, we could say that, but also we’re moving in the right direction.”