“The University of Southern California released a study yesterday about the preferences of the Academy and found that in almost in any given year of best picture nominations, the roles for people who are neither white nor male are few and far between.”

So reports this NYT article in reference to this study, which also observes:

“The data show there are almost three speaking males for every one female and more than four white speaking characters for every one non-white character,”the study found in its survey of 30 years of best picture nominations.

“Unfortunately, females are grossly underrepresented in these prestigious films,”said Stacy Smith, a professor of communication at U.S.C., and a principal researcher in the study.”The gender-imbalance findings are a microcosm of a much bigger representational phenomenon in American film and television.”…

The full text of the study is available here.