Spare Me Your Rage Regarding the Academy’s New Inclusivity Initiatives
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced revised eligibility criteria for the Best Picture Oscar that emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion. Naturally, sectors of the internet and the industry exploded with resistance and rage over perceived loss of artistic freedom. Here’s why they are wrong.
Some Thoughts on the Academy
Although I am a passionate observer, frequent commentator, and self-proclaimed expert on the Oscars, I am hardly an Academy apologist.
I have written about several major decisions they have made over the past few years that I thought were ill-conceived at best and disastrous at worst. These include their quickly-scrapped plan for a new category for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, their handling of the Kevin Hart as Oscar host controversy, and their membership body’s decision to give Best Picture to Green Book.
But I also don’t think the Academy is inherently bad, nor do I think that it is consistently regressive. For example, their decisions to give Best Picture to innovative films with rich social commentary and exclusively non-white casts like Moonlight and Parasite over the last few years has really impressed me. I am also struck by these two fascinating trends:
