The moment the 2016 Oscar nominations were released to the public Jan. 14, the annual chatter began. Debates spawned regarding why “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was not nominated for Best Picture, why Leonardo DiCaprio still has not gotten his hands on an Oscar and why are the acting nominees all white once again.

Sophomore Cole Campbell is fascinated by each new Hollywood controversy and tries to keep updated with every upcoming movie and award show in the film world.

“Ever since I was a kid, my mom would take me to Hastings and we would rent movies to watch together,” Campbell said. “She showed me all the classics, and now I can talk about movies, old and new, all day long. There’s not really any [movie I’m not] interested in.

After years of watching and predicting the Oscars, Campbell dreams to someday have an Oscar of his own.

“I don’t even have a Plan B,” Campbell said. “ I just want to make a film that will be someone’s favorite movie. I want it to make an impact on someone’s life.”

For AV Tech teacher James Paul, the Oscars are of little significance.

“I actually try to avoid it,” Paul said. “I don’t care to see famous people being famous and wearing expensive clothes.”

Paul does not desire to watch or live the life of extreme fortune and stardom, but aspires for a different kind of fame.

“I think you’re not alive if you don’t want to be famous in some way,” Paul said. “I’ve always thought I’d be a different kind of famous, though I don’t know what kind. Nationally famous is too much. I couldn’t go to WalMart. I also don’t look very good in sunglasses.”

When others think “Oscars,” it is not fame and fortune that comes to mind, but the lack of diversity among the nominees. For the second year in a row, only white actors were nominated in the acting categories, which frustrated senior Marissa Gaspard.

“It’s not just black people, but people of color in general were really unrepresented,” Gaspard said. “You see that with most of those sorts of things in Hollywood.”

Gaspard hopes Hollywood will diversify as time goes on.

“Look at American history,” Gaspard said. “All these people that have been in important films and have laid a ton of important groundwork for these current people. It’s changing more and more with people like Beyonce, Jay Z, even Rihanna and Alicia Keys. We just need to help represent not only the people from past time, but present time too.”