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The 2015 Critics’ Choice Movie Awards was filled with all sorts of glamour as Hollywood’s elite rubbed shoulders with reporters, anxious to find out which films were hailed as the best of this past year. Boyhood and Birdman ran away with a large chunk of the awards on Thursday night, but a lot of the controversy that surrounded the recent Oscar announcements linger in the air.

A few of the recent Oscar nominees made their way onto the electric blue carpet, sharing their excitement for the events in the past 24 hours over the announcement. In some ways the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards were overshadowed by the Oscar announcements, which isn’t that much of a surprise. With the announcements came a lot of controversy in regards to diversity in Hollywood towards women and those of different races. It’s a sad situation to see that we’re in the year 2015 and the Oscars is still spoon feeding the public the idea that those of a different gender or race outside of white males aren’t producing the same kind of fantastic material that’s being nominated for the Oscar. There’s plenty of great films out there being made by women, but they just need a chance to be seen.

Not every woman who walked down the blue carpet and into the press room had a lot to say about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. The few who did speak up not only had some strong words to say about the ongoing controversy, but the strong female characters that help continually break down barriers as to how women should be depicted in films. Perhaps one of the cooler animated characters to emulate that kind of mindset was Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6. She’s a wonderfully optimistic and fashionable young lady, but she’s incredibly intelligent. Actress Genesis Rodriguez stopped to talk about her character and how happy she was to voice such a non-stereotypical character.

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“She’s a badass, and she’s redefining what smart girls are supposed to look like,” said Rodriguez. “I like that. I hope it gives girls an option of that they can be fashionable and very smart. They don’t have to be one or the other. They can be anything that they want, and that’s what I loved about her. I always identified with that. I went to an all girls school, so it was all about girl power. And honestly, I didn’t feel like I was hindered in any way, ever. I was just being a girl. I was on a robotics team. I was an honor roll student and I thought I was kind of cool. Also it can all work in your favor. The limits are set on your own.”

At the other end of the spectrum is Laika, an animation studios that continually produces wonderful, three-dimensional female characters – more which we should definitely see in live-action movies. The Boxtrolls director Graham Annable spoke about how much they loved Winnie (voiced by Elle Fanning) and how it took some time to make sure that character was just right. She still retained her great outspoken personality, a key component about the character they never wanted to see disappear.

“We had to find a nice balance where you felt for Winnie as well as against her in some of the scenes,” said Annable. “She’s one of the characters that Anthony (Stacci) and I are the most proud of how she turned out, cause it was a bit of a struggle. She was one of the characters that wasn’t in the book, so we had to figure out how she fit. She was a real composite of a lot of characters combined into one, and to make all that work in that script, it was a delicate dance and I’m really proud of the way that she turned out.”

There’s been a number of articles on this topic that have popped up online in the past 24 hours about the lack of diversity in the film industry. But the one woman whose words have held the most meaning is actress Jessica Chastain. At this point Jessica Chastain’s wonderful speech on diversity in Hollywood has made the rounds online today.(If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link) Afterwards she went off to the press room to speak up some more about how Hollywood should really strive to show the progressive world we live in today through their own films.

“I’ve always spoken to the press about how as an audience member I loving to see diversity in American cinema,” said Chastain. “I just wish we had stories about a larger group of people. The film industry is made to hold a merit to society, to reflect where we are in our past, where are we today, where we’re headed. It needs to reflect more of where we are today.”

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Later on Ron Howard walked into the press room and spoke up about how diversity is really starting to show through television more than film. Sadly Hollywood still has some ways to go in regards to being more progressive on the movie front, but at least folks are doing something right on the TV spectrum in Ron Howard’s eyes.

“I think that television has done such a spectacular job of elevating people’s awareness as to what women could do onscreen and carry a movie,” replied Howard. “I always think that the demographics of the movie going audience has shifted a little bit… I feel like that studio executives, financiers, they always follow the audience. The audience is beginning to show up for movies with women in the lead, and the creative community is delighted – believe me – because you know there’s so many rich possibilities there and so many talented women to fill those roles.”

Hopefully this outcry is the start of a good change in this crazy movie industry.

Melissa is a zany freelance journalist who isn’t afraid to share her love of movies, cats, comics and Dungeons & Dragons. Follow her on Twitter @Meli_Molina & check out her drawings on Tumblr.

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Melissa Molina