This week, perhaps the most notable and talked about snub (aside from The LEGO Movie bizarrely not getting into Best Animated Feature) was Ava Duvernay not getting into Best Director for her superb work in Selma. Many complained, noting that the Academy Awards had displayed sexist and racist tendencies in the past. Other retorted to this, stating 12 Years A Slave winning Best Picture last year eradicated any possibility of those voting for the awards demonstrating racist tendencies, while also noting that the Academy should focus on voting for quality films instead of looking to “fill some quota”.

Truthfully, I’d say Duvernay not getting the Best Director nomination she so richly deserved had a lot to do with Paramount botching the awards campaign for Selma. That feature didn’t have a well-known director or a cast filled with A-listers, so it did need to work a bit harder to stand out from the pack, something an effective marketing job on Paramount’s part could have achieved with ease. But did elements like sexism and racism factor into her and he remarkable cast getting snubbed? Oh yes indeedy.

Of course, the Academy Awards are well known for their recurring problem with diversity; most notably, the ceremony has never had someone of non-Caucasian descent win Best Director, and has only once given that award to a woman. Kathryn Bigelow should have won Best Director in 2012, not because the awards need to fill “some quota”, but because she was the best director that year, period. The fact that she didn’t win, let alone get nominated, is an indicator of a deep problem in the Oscars to not expand what their ceremony recognizes as great cinema.

Good luck if you’re a comedy, blockbuster or animated feature getting any sort of Oscar recognition. These particular mediums for telling certain stories in cinema face similar obstacles as films directed by women or people of color, as the Academy typically overlooks them in favor of more conventional features like The Artist. The LEGO Movie and Guardians Of The Galaxy were both better than half of the Best Picture nominees this year, yet had to settle for only one or two nominations. They’re dismissed as “cartoons” or “mindless junk”, when in fact they utilize the form of cinema to tell compelling stories, stories that should be given attention at a ceremony that has an enormous presence in the world (whether it deserves to have that presence or not is up for debate).

Alas, the Oscars won’t recognize such films just like they won’t recognize tales told from female and non-White filmmakers, This type of issue just feeds into the Academy Awards penchant for not being able to expand their minds as to what qualifies as quality. Gender, race, or medium of film shouldn’t factor into nominations, but the lack of recognition of films that deviate from conventional norms (typically, white people period pieces) just reduces the Oscars already poor reputation. The ceremony has awarded Best Picture to worthy films in the past (recently, they gave the award to The Departed and No Country For Old Men, both features worthy of the award), and frankly, the reason snubbing Ava Duvernay for Best Director this year has caught so much attention is primarily because the Oscars thought outside of the box this year in numerous notable ways.

Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel (the latter’s protagonist is a person of color, I might add) are very unorthodox films for the Academy to recognize, and both share the quality of actually being incredible pieces of cinema. They’re both two of the most notable films in 2014, and it’s great to see the Academy recognize them both and their incredible directors Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson. But that sort of recognition just reinforces how incredibly disappointing it is to see the Academy keep on refusing to acknowledge quality filmmakers of different genders and race for their cinematic achievements as well. They’ve finally come around to the brilliance of Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson, how about extending that courtesy to great directors like Ava Duvernay and Steve McQueen?