In recent years, the hashtag #Oscarssowhite has epitomised the embarrassing lack of diversity in Academy Award winners and nominees.

As 2015 and 2016 saw not a single actor of colour nominated for an acting accolade, an outcry over the doleful whitewashing of the film industry’s premier awards has come into the spotlight. 

And as the first and only female actor of colour to have won the Best Actress Academy Award, Halle Berry has said that her gong for her in performance in Monster’s Ball now “means nothing” because fifteen years on, she is the only non-white recipient to have won the prize.

“I sat there and I really thought, ‘Wow, that moment really meant nothing,’” Berry told Teen Vogue Editor Elaine Welteroth at Cannes Lion.

“It meant nothing. I thought it meant something, but I think it meant nothing.’”

“It’s troubling, to say the least,” she added.

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Although in 2017 Viola Davis won a Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in fences, and Moonlight and its crowning star Mahershala Ali were also won at the premier awards, there is still a long way to go before the awards are a paragon of diversity.

And Berry believes that the best way to help Hollywood progress is by getting more active in the industry.

“I want to start producing more,” she said.

 “I want to start making more opportunities for people of colour. I have conversations more deeply with Academy members, and I'm trying to figure out how to help and add more diversity to the Academy.”

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Berry’s comments come after the Academy announced it is inviting 774 new members from 57 countries in an effort to boost diversity.

But the stark reality of the ceremony has seen just four black women nominated for the Best Actress award since 2002.

Images: Rex Features