At Sundays BAFTAs, the British equivalent of the Oscars, Best Actor winner Joaquin Phoenix earned praise for candidly acknowledging his own complicity in the lack of diversity at the top of the film industry.

Im ashamed to say that Im part of the problem. I have not done everything in my power to ensure that the sets I work on are inclusive, he said during his acceptance speech at the ceremony in London, where all 20 acting nominees were white . We have to really do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism. I think that is the obligation of the people that have created and perpetuate and benefit from a system of oppression to be the ones that dismantle it. So thats on us.

The field of nominees at this Sundays Oscars, where Phoenix is the favorite to win Best Actor, is similarly glaringly white . Out of the 20 acting nominees, only one actor of color, Harriet star Cynthia Erivo, was included.

The results were especially jarring given the profusion of widely praised performances by actors of color in 2019, including Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers, Lupita Nyongo in Us and Awkwafina in The Farewell and even more so given the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences efforts to diversify its membership in the years since activist April Reigns Oscars So White hashtag called out the institutions abysmal levels of diversity.

A new study from one of the leading groups researching representation in Hollywood shows how its these kinds of institutions and industry gatekeepers that need to catch up to reality. 2019 was a banner year for diversity and representation for women and people of color at the box office and a continuation of several years of consistent progress , according to the report from the University of Southern Californias Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, published Tuesday.

The researchers, led by USC professor and the groups founder Stacy L. Smith, found that 31 of the 100 highest-grossing films at the box office had a lead or co-lead actor from an underrepresented race or ethnicity.

Its the fourth consecutive year of gains, up from 27 in 2018 , 21 in 2017, and just 14 in both 2015 and 2016.