A mini-disaster has erupted in the past few days in Hollywood behind the scenes in connection with the recent announcement Oscar nominations and specifically those that concern him first female role. Few were surprised to see her name. Andrea Riseborough next to four other colleagues. The American actress stars in the independent film What Life Brings, which tells the story of a woman struggling to find her footing, hailing from a downtrodden part of so-called “white” America.

The “problem” with Riseborough’s candidacy is that her own presence has supplanted female protagonists like Viola Davis (“The Woman King”) and Daniel Deadweiler (“Before”), resulting in no black actresses on the final list. This is at least supported by members of the black Hollywood community, led by Till director Chinonye Tsuku, who openly accused the film industry of “promoting ‘whiteness’, perpetuating misogynistic discrimination against black women.”

But how did Riseborough from the humble film What Life Brings get into the Oscars? The answer has to do with her prominent co-stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, and even co-nominee Cate Blanchett, who hosted a private screening of her film for members of the Academy to organize a related Q&A and generally a whole campaign to Oscar promotion. Something similar happened, of course, on the other side, but much more formally, since behind the “Woman King” and “Before” are such large production studios as United Artists and Sony. Now the Academy is meeting today to find out if everything was done legally, with the possibility of Riseborough’s candidacy being withdrawn considered unlikely.