The #OscarsSoWhite campaign two years ago highlighted the lack of ethnic diversity among Academy Award nominees. The problem persists, but this year's honourees are a little less white and male, especially in the prestige categories of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, with three nominations apiece for Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) and Jordan Peele (Get Out), and screenplay nods for Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon (The Big Sick) and Dee Rees (Mudbound). Alison de Souza talks to some of them in Los Angeles