New rules on eligibility for Oscar nominations will take effect next year, forcing movie studios to implement diversity requirements in order to qualify for the Best Picture award, according to a press release from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The new standards revolve around representations with respect to sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and cognitive or physical disabilities. Films eligible for nomination will need to meet at least two of four criteria related to on-screen representation and themes, creative leadership, industry access, and audience development, with subset criteria to meet under each new standard.
“The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience,” said the organization.
Film studios must submit a “confidential academy inclusion standards” form in order to gauge how closely a film meets each criteria. Within the on-screen representation category, for instance, at least one lead actor must be a member of a racial minority group, at least 30% of secondary characters must be minorities with respect to ethnicity, gender, or disability, or the “main storyline” must center on an “underrepresented group.”
Within the creative leadership and project team category, at least two department heads must be women, ethnic minorities, physically or cognitively disabled, or identify themselves as LGBT. Studios could alternatively ensure that the overall crew aligns with the same 30% rule.
Critics of the new policies say the guidelines will prioritize diversity ahead of quality storytelling and contend that many award-winning films of the past would not have been recognized under the new guidelines. Marcus Pittman, the chief executive of crowdfunded streaming platform Loor, said in an interview with The Sentinel that the Oscars have fundamentally changed the incentive structure for film studios seeking the distinction.
"The Oscars used to be about rewarding artists for storytelling talent and skill,” Pittman said. “That has been tossed aside to force a diversity agenda that will almost certainly be pushed upon your children. The Oscars’ primary goal is no longer the quality of the film, but the race and sexuality of the cast and crew.”
Pittman compared the new diversity requirements to the contrived narratives which have long impacted the quality of Christian movie projects. “In an amazing twist, Hollywood has gone the path of most faith-based films. They’ve traded artistic skill for preaching a message,” he continued. “Apparently giving artists the freedom to make the art they want, without having to push a specific message, is the new punk rock."
Richard Dreyfuss, who starred in “Jaws” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus” and won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1977, said in an interview with PBS that the new requirements make him “vomit.”
“This is an art form,” the actor contended. “It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art. No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is.”
The press release from the Oscars clarified that previous requirements will still stand for films other than Best Picture, adding that the new criteria is “the next phase of the academy’s equity and inclusion initiative furthering the organization’s ongoing efforts to advance inclusion in the entertainment industry and increase representation within its membership and the greater film community.”
