The protagonist of the film "To Leslie", Andrea Riseborough, retains her Oscar nomination for Best Actress. This was decided by the Academy of Motion Picture in a meeting entirely dedicated to the issue that has occupied the pages of the American press since the announcement of the nominations. We need to take a step back.

When the nominations for the 2023 Oscars were announced in January, British actress Andrea Riseborough's took Hollywood by surprise.

Sure, critics had praised her portrayal of an alcoholic Texas mother trying to make ends meet after squandering her lottery winnings, but "To Leslie," a low-budget film, grossed a handful of dollars ($27,<>, writes BBC) at the box office and was never promoted as it usually does for works in the running for prestigious awards.

To spend more than a word on the film and its protagonist were instead some of the biggest Hollywood stars who participated in an unusual and irritual "advertising campaign" on social media. To start the tam tam of supports, was Mary McCormack, wife of the director of the film Michael Morris.

Scrolling through her Twitter profile there are only posts dedicated to To Leslie and its protagonist, often retweets of "endorsements" of actors, actresses and directors. Like this one by Edward Norton.

Actresses Mia Farrow and Mira Sorvino also bothered themselves.

And then Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett, also a direct competitor of Riseborough with her candidacy for Tar.

McCormack has reportedly sent dozens of emails asking celebrity friends and other Academy members to support the film and its protagonist. An initiative that is not against the rules (which prohibit campaigning for oneself) but that has raised a fuss in Hollywood in which racial problems have also returned to discuss.

The Oscar nomination of outsider Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie would have overshadowed African-American stars such as Viola Davis of The Woman King and Danielle Deadwyler of Till - both in the running for the awards of the Screen Actors Guild, the actors' union - but who did not enter the pool that, moreover, is not totally "white".

In addition to Blanchett, Riseborough and Michelle Williams for Fabelmans, Cuba's Ana de Armas for Blonde and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once are in the running.

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Oscar-nominated actresses

Nigerian-American director Chinonye Chukwu relaunched the hashtag #OscarSoWhite (born in 2016 to contest the absence of actors belonging to ethnic minorities) after the little-known actress from Newcastle was preferred to other black divas.

Chinonye is the filmmaker behind Till and didn't like her (and Deadwyler) being left on the sidelines: "We live in a world and work in industries aggressively committed to defending 'whiteness' and perpetuating misogyny towards black women," she wrote on Instagram, pledging to resist "joyfully" against prejudice.

Actress Christina Ricci, on the other hand, found it "hilarious" that the surprise nomination (meaning that tons of money were not spent to position this actress) of a brilliant performance is the subject of an investigation. "Is it only the films and actors who can afford the campaigns that deserve recognition?", he wrote on his social media: "It seems elitist, exclusive and frankly very backward".

The Academy's decision to "keep" the nomination for the actress of To Leslie should defuse the debate.

"We have found that the activities in question do not go so far as to revoke the candidacy," reads a statement released today, "however, we have discovered tactics on social media that have created concern and we will address them directly with stakeholders". There will be no changes for this 2023 edition of the Oscars, the Academy finally knows, but has committed to reviewing its rules "to help create a better framework for respectful, inclusive and unprejudiced campaigns".