Photo courtesy of Jess Blanksteen.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced a new initiative they’re developing in order to increase diversity in the movies that are eligible for Best Picture, and it’s not going to do a damn thing.
Starting in 2024 with the 96th Academy Awards, there are going to be new standards that films must meet in order to qualify for the Oscars’ top prize. These new rules have undoubtedly been instituted as a response to protests over the years of struggle women, artists of color, as well as artists and stories of the LGBT+ community have had when it comes to getting recognition in the Academy’s favor. To be brief, the rules are basically quotas that movies must meet, both in front of and behind the camera, in order for them to be eligible for a Best Picture nomination. These can include roles, or themes explored in the film given to people of color or the LGBT+ community, as well as technical positions on the crew. While this may sound jarring, or like some sort of restriction on art, let me assure you that these rules are more or less a completely empty gesture. They’re completely soft and safe. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the specifics of the rules, so let me recommend you use the free New York Times subscription the school gives us to check out the article by Kyle Buchanan on the same topic.
The sad truth is that for many years now, the Oscars have been, and have almost prided themselves upon being exclusive. This perhaps most infamously and disproportionately affects women, people of color and LGBT+ people, but they are even more sweeping than that. Oscar movies are at this point basically a genre in and of themselves, and to even be considered, there is a super narrow margin that you have to squeeze through.
So let’s answer the question: What is an Oscar movie?
My operating thesis, and the common theme amongst virtually every Best Picture nominee and eventual winner, is that the Oscars and their movies must feel important. But what does this mean for which films get picked? And what problems do the Oscars have that need fixing?
1. The Oscars are no longer for the people
In a world of fine art in other mediums, those in the position to critique film at this most prestigious level must differentiate themselves from the dregs of popcorn flicks that the common folk drive their minivans to go see. Looking in decades past, it would have been seriously uncommon for the nominees for Best Picture to not include a bare minimum of one top five box office hits that year. But seemingly, after mega hits like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won the top prize, the Oscars have turned away from this. This would ultimately culminate in the infamous snub of The Dark Knight in 2008, leading to massive protest. In response, the Academy expanded Best Picture to up to 10 nominees in hopes to regain favor with the people, and although the first few years after seemed to be a positive return to form with nominations like Up, Inception, and Toy Story 3, the Academy has had a streaky record of choosing great movies that audiences have actually seen since then. In fact, over the past decade, 88 films were nominated for Best Picture. Only 33 of them grossed 100 million domestically. In a world where the most popular movies each year aim to gross over 300 or 400 million domestically, the Academy’s efforts to stray away from blockbuster cinema is clear (Let’s not even talk about that proposed “Popular Film” category, Jesus).
Other Stats:
Less than 11% of the Best Picture nominees of the 2010s made 200 million domestic.
Less than 17% made 300 million international
Less than 13% made 500 million international
2. The Oscars don’t even pay attention most of the year
It doesn’t really seem like “Oscar season” should even be a thing. After all, the Oscars
claim to select the best out of every year, not just every autumn. Over the course of the 2010s, of every single Best Picture nominee, 70 out of the 88 nominees were released in October, November, or December. If your job is to judge the best of an entire year, maybe consider doing that. Here’s the breakdown of the how many nominees this decade were released each month:
January: 0 February: 2 March: 1
April: 0 May: 3 June: 3
July: 5 August: 3 September: 1
October: 13 November: 31 December: 26
3. The Oscars like movies that feel important, or make them feel important
One of my bigger feats as a movie nerd is coming up with this short list right here. Through years of both casual and obsessive research I think I have narrowed it down to five key qualifications that Best Picture nominees must have at least one of. These following rules apply to probably more than 95% of Best Picture nominees, all 9 of last year’s nominees, and they all make movies, or the Academy who watches them, feel important or prestigious.
- Based on a true story
- Social/Political commentary or relevance
- Set in the past or depicts history
- Showcases or heavily discusses Hollywood, filmmaking or the artistic process
- Based on famous or well respected source material
If you don’t have at least one of these present in your movie you have almost no shot of getting a nomination. I’m actually writing a second article on these five rules specifically in the next edition, so I won’t expand too much here. But I’ll leave you with one trivia question: When do you think the last time was that none of the following: Best Picture, Best Actress or Best Actor went to a film based on a true story?
Answer: 1992. 27 years ago. (Unforgiven, Howard’s End and Scent of a Woman)
4. The Voting Base is Grotesquely Skewed
For a group of voters who are supposedly picking a movie that represents the best in an art form of a whole country, or even the world, they really don’t look like the country. They sure as s**t don’t look like the world. They look like the dudes running for president (Ooh, a politics zing! How brave, how clever!). As of 2019, 69% of the Academy’s voting base were men, and 84% were white. From a 2014 survey, the average age of an academy voter was 63-years-old. That’s the average. Maybe you wouldn’t have the problem of non-diverse nominees if your voting body was actually diverse? Sincerely, I’m not here to pick on anyone or any group. No member shouldn’t receive membership based on race, gender or age as a factor. But, for a committee that’s composed of thousands of people, the demographics should not be this skewed. They should really diversify and expand the group of people that can vote. If this group voted on food instead of movies, Best Picture would mean oatmeal at dawn.
Look, I love the Oscars. Oscar night is more important and far more fun for me to gamble on than even the Superbowl. However, if they don’t make greater efforts to change what they’re about, eventually I, and everyone else will move on and not care what they think. Most people already have. I’d really like to see change, but to be honest, I’m not sure that the Academy wants to change. The new rules certainly don’t mean change.
Your problems are too deep to be solved by quotas that don’t do anything.
Next issue I’ll be further breaking down the logistics of what makes an Oscar movie, and analyzing the five subcategories laid out in point 3.
See you all in part 2.
