The Academy Announced New Diversity And Inclusion Requirements For The Best Picture Oscar
I always forget that this year’s Oscars actually happened, because thinking of February 2020 makes the dilapidated projector in my brain project OldRoseItsBeen84Years.GIF onto the inner walls of my mind. So 2024 feels like three millenniums away, and well, if 2024 ever happens, filmmakers hoping to get that Best Picture Oscar will have to meet new inclusion and diversity requirements that the Academy has thrown down. It seems like the new rules will be pretty easy to follow if studios want a shot at Best Picture and the bar is so low that only baby ants can do the limbo under it, but still, people are already blowing out steams of rage over it, including Kirstie Alley who thinks these new rules are fucking with art. Listen, of course, Kirstie Alley cares about the sanctity of art. I mean, she was in For Richer Or Poorer.
Because I guess the Academy knows that #OscarsSoWhite makes them look bad, they have made moves to be more inclusive like promising to double its number of female and non-white members. And last night, they announced the requirements that a movie will have to meet if it wants to be submitted for Best Picture. None of the other Oscar categories are affected. The rules will go into effect for the 2024 Oscars, but for the 2022 and 2023 Oscars, studios will have to submit a confidential “inclusion standard form.”
Variety says that these rules don’t apply to animated, foreign films, or documentaries that want to submit for Best Picture. The Academy will handle that separately.
The inclusion requirements have been broken down into four standards. A movie has to meet at least two of these standards to be considered for Best Picture:
A: On-screen representation, themes, and narrative
B: Creative leadership and project team
C: Paid internships and apprenticeships
D: Audience development
In order for a movie to qualify for standard A, it has to meet one of these requirements:
- At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group: Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern/North African, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or another underrepresented race or ethnicity.
- At least 30% of all actors in secondary and more minor roles are from at least two of the following underrepresented groups: Women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s), such as women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
And for standard B, it has to meet one of these requirements:
- At least two of the following creative leadership positions and department heads — Casting Director, Cinematographer, Composer, Costume Designer, Director, Editor, Hairstylist, Makeup Artist, Producer, Production Designer, Set Decorator, Sound, VFX Supervisor, Writer — are from the following underrepresented groups: Women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- At least one of those positions must belong to the following underrepresented racial or ethnic group: Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern/North African, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or another underrepresented race or ethnicity
- At least six other crew/team and technical positions (excluding Production Assistants) are from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. These positions include but are not limited to First AD, Gaffer, Script Supervisor, etc.
- At least 30% of the film’s crew is from the following underrepresented groups: Women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
And for standard C, it has to meet BOTH of these requirements:
- The film’s distribution or financing company has paid apprenticeships or internships that are from the following underrepresented groups and satisfy the criteria: Women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- The film’s production, distribution and/or financing company offers training and/or work opportunities for below-the-line skill development to people from the following underrepresented groups: Women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Finally, for standard D, it has to meet this requirement:
- The studio and/or film company has multiple in-house senior executives from among the following underrepresented groups (must include individuals from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups) on their marketing, publicity, and/or distribution teams.
I looked at the past five Best Picture winners (Parasite, Green Book, The Shape of Water, Moonlight, and Spotlight) and the first four would definitely get in, and Spotlight’s cinematographer, Masanobu Takayanagi, is Japanese, so it’d probably make the cut too.
This is just for the Oscars, obviously. So if WhiteDude McStraight’o wants to make a movie called Just For Straight White Guys starring only straight white guys and made only by straight white guys, that’s okay, it just can’t get nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. But of course, people are still mad and Kirstie Alley twatted this out, via Entertainment Tonight:
This is a disgrace to artists everywhere…can you imagine telling Picasso what had to be in his fucking paintings. You people have lost your minds. Control artists, control individual thought .. OSCAR ORWELL.
Kirstie deleted it and explained why:
I deleted my first tweet about the new rules for best movie OSCARS because I feel it was a poor analogy & misrepresented my viewpoint. I am 100% behind diversity inclusion & tolerance. I’m opposed to MANDATED ARBITRARY percentages relating to hiring human beings in any business.
— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) September 9, 2020
Yes, Kirstie Alley, a devoted Scientologist, is calling out and shitting on an organization for controlling individual thought and for being Orwellian?! Ahahahhahahahaha! If only there was an Oscar category for Best Comedy and if only tweets could be considered for an Oscar. Kirstie Alley would become a 2021 Oscar winner by a landslide. Oh, Kirstie, you still got those comedy skills!
Pic: Wenn.com