( CNN ) -- The U.S. distributor of an Australian film about a group of Aboriginal women soul singers has apologized for a DVD cover which critics have labeled sexist and racist . `` The Sapphires , '' a feel-good hit in Australia , told the story of an all-women Aboriginal soul group in the 1960s who overcome racism at home to forge a successful career . But the cover art for the U.S. release of the DVD , distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment , has drawn a storm of criticism for the way it relegates the film 's four Aboriginal women actors to the background , their skin tones rendered a muted blue , and places the white male actor who plays their manager in the foreground . The manager is played by Irish actor Chris O'Dowd , the best known of the film 's actors , who has a rising profile in Hollywood on the back of performances in hits including `` Bridesmaids . '' On the cover of the Australian release of the DVD , O'Dowd receives equal prominence with his co-stars , Deborah Mailman , Jessica Mauboy , Miranda Tapsell and Shari Sebbens . Anchor Bay Entertainment said in a statement that it `` regrets any unintentional upset '' caused by the DVD , which was released in the U.S. Tuesday . `` New cover art is being considered for future replenishment orders , '' the statement said . The cover art had sparked a social media backlash and drawn nearly 17,000 signatures to an online petition urging Anchor Bay Entertainment to repackage the film . The petition , started by Melbourne woman Lucy Manne , quoted a London-based film blogger MaryAnn Johanson , who had written about the film 's marketing : `` Movies about women are rare enough . Movies about black women are even rarer . And now we 're gon na pretend the movies about women , whatever their color , are n't even about them at all ? '' The original Sapphires -- the singers whose real-life story inspired the film -- also entered the fray , writing to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) , a powerful civil rights lobby group in the U.S. , to boycott the American release of the DVD , Melbourne 's The Age newspaper reported . O'Dowd also weighed in to the debate about the cover art . `` It 's ridiculous , it 's misleading , it 's ill-judged , insensitive and everything the film was n't , '' he wrote , in a tweet that was later deleted . But others felt the anger over the cover art was misplaced . Karl Quinn , national film editor for Australia 's Fairfax Media , wrote that the campaign over the cover art was `` misguided , '' arguing that leveraging O'Dowd 's profile was `` unquestionably the best shot the US distributors have of finding an audience for 'The Sapphires ' . '' The film 's producers , Rosemary Blight and Kylie du Fresne , thanked Anchor Bay for its apology , saying in a joint statement that they hoped that the film 's marketing materials would reflect its themes . `` It has always been our hope that the film would play a part in building mutual respect and understanding between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Australia , '' they wrote .
The official DVD cover image for an Australian film about Aboriginal soul singers has been criticized . The image places the Aboriginal actors in the background , while ignoring the white actors . The U.S. distributors have apologized for the image . Some said the criticism was unjustified , as the white lead was the film 's best known .