Awesome. Those types of movies were already Oscar bait, stealing votes from white movies that were “better” in every way but subject matter and casting. But now they can send all those films to this category and get back to awarding white movies the top awards. It’s so great they’re making room for both.
Honest question: what in 2020 will now not be nominated, that otherwise would have been? I can only really judge the most visible criteria, the cast, and even then I’m unsure about the 30% ratio in what I’ve seen.
Not sure but I think it would be more interesting to look at past movies that were nominated/won but would retroactively fail under the new criteria.
B and C in particular look super easy to qualify, at least going forward. Apologies for the stereotypes, but all you need is a female makeup artist and a gay hairstylist, and have some minority interns at the financing company. It’s (relatively) hard to imagine that any (US) film would be excluded that wasn’t consciously trying to be excluded.
It’s important to note, you can qualify while having an entirely cis, straight white male cast and crew.
It’s an impossible task, unless you have access to every production/distribution company’s HR records.
True, but then the story needs to be about women, racial or ethnic group, lgbtq+ or people with disabilities. Right?
Oh never mind, right at the top, you only need to meet 2 of 4 standards, I’d missed that part. Blah. That sucks.
Nope. You can do it entirely with fairly (and really should be very) easy to satisfy staff requirements at the distribution/finance companies.
So now the Oscars are going to look like any current BBC production.
I don’t get the context, but the Oscars can’t get any worse so this should totally be a net positive. My experience with BBC shows are dark detective serials… and that tosser, Doc Martin.
Have you not noticed that EVERY BBC production these days features a mixed-race couple in it? I suspect it is a rule.
Please note this isn’t a critique, but it is rather glaringly overt.
I’m all for inclusiveness in the cast and crew, but the main storyline needs to center around a minority group also? That’s crazy. It would exclude tons of previously nominated films, including 1917, Ford vs Ferrari, Marriage Story, The Irishman, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last year.
No it doesn’t. That is just one way of qualifying among nine.
Ahh, OK-- I misread it and missed they only needed to meet 2 criteria. Thanks.
Of those four standards, most have several options, only one of which must be satisfied. As I noted above, you don’t even need to have any diversity in cast and crew (or story) at all, just meet two of the C and D standards.
Yep, like I said, I misread that. It isn’t written confusingly or anything, and it’s the first line, I just completely missed it.
Well, Luther certainly bangs a lot of white chicks, but his ex dumped him for a white guy. And, uh… Sorry, all my other detective shows are about depressed or defective detectives against the world, and nobody even likes them.
Oh, and Broadchurch, but I can’t remember anybody but a few key actors I follow from show to show. But he’s also an angry loner.
I guess relationships are just out of my field of view.
Or if you’re feeling punchy, you could do a story about an underrepresented group without casting any of that group. Brilliant.
I’m all for encouraging Hollywood to hire and cast more diversely, but these standards are so undemanding and easy to meet that it seems hard to see where it will make for any real change. (And, of course, they only need to care about them at all if they’re trying to get a Best Picture award, which many, many movies are clearly never going to get and know as much.)
Yes. I think, even despite the laxness, it would have some value if it were a baseline for nominations in all categories. Basically the Academy setting a harmonised minimum standard for diversity in the film industry, albeit a very low one. But if it only applies to the best picture category, then it will do very little to actually change behaviour, and will likely just tilt that award even more to the large studios that are able to game the requirements.