Viola Davis wins BAFTA Award, speaks up for African-Americans

London: Viola Davis, who on Sunday won the Best Supporting Actress honour at the 70th BAFTA Awards for "Fences", finds it an anomaly that the awards season has diverse nominees this year. She also took a dig at US President Donald Trump, saying he knows nothing about acting.

Davis spoke to the media after winning the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award, and said: "Anyone who labels Meryl Streep 'overrated' doesn't know anything about acting."

This is in reference to veteran actress Meryl Streep's public spat with Trump, telegraph.co.uk reported.

Davis, who was competing for the honour with Hayley Squires ("I, Daniel Blake"), Michelle Williams ("Manchester by the Sea"), Naomie Harris ("Moonlight") and Nicole Kidman ("Lion"), also expressed concern over the diversity in the film world.

"I believe what still is a deficiency is that we have one year a plethora of American-American movies and then the next year nothing," Davis said, explaining how predictions for next year have been floated already "and very few African-American names are in there".

Commenting on the political climate, Davis also spoke of her concerns for five-year-old daughter Genesis, telegraph.co.uk reported.

"She has to understand that she's gotta be the change she wants to be. "She can't assume people's minds have been woken up -- we see that in the political climate now. We have to be the instrument of change now."