Academy on defensive as critics slam lack of Oscar diversity

There's uproar brewing about what will be the whitest Academy Awards in years. All 20 acting nominees are white, something that hasn't happened since 1998. The results have sparked a firestorm on social media with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite overshadowing the official #OscarNoms hashtag on Twitter.

Despite calls to better reflect the demographics of America, the Academy is defending their decision, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

The Martin Luther King Jr. biopic "Selma" received critical acclaim and was generating heavy Oscar buzz for actor David Oyelowo and director Ava Duvernay. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Song, but was snubbed in the director and acting categories.

"They don't judge with the same barometer when it comes to a diverse palate of women and people of color," Actor Wendell Pierce, who played Rev. Hosea Williams in the film, said.

Duvernay would have been the first black woman nominated for best director.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told New York magazine after the nominations she doesn't believe the Academy has a problem with diversity, saying "The good news is that the wealth of talent is there, and it's being discussed."

The Academy doesn't reveal very much about its more than 6,000 members, but a 2012 Los Angeles Times survey indicated that Oscar voters are nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male.

"America is browning and Hollywood needs to catch up," USA Today entertainment reporter Arienne Thompson said. "You cannot be a body, you cannot be the Academy and be 94 percent white and think that you're reflecting any sort of reality that's happening in this country."

This year, not a single female writer, composer or cinematographer got a nod. A 2014 study from San Diego State University claimed that women made up just 17 percent of all the people who worked behind the camera.

"There are talented women, there are talented blacks and Hispanics also. All they're asking for is inclusion, that's all they're asking for," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member Bill Duke said.

President Obama will host a screening of "Selma" Friday night at the White House. It's the first major Hollywood film to focus on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as the nation prepares to celebrate his national holiday on Monday.