Are The Oscars Really Changing?
Illustration by Johnny Neville | The Corsair
On Sept. 8, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released new diversity standards set to take effect for the 96th Annual Oscars in 2024. These new standards are applied to the “Best Picture” category, to increase diversity on-screen, within the industry, and among audiences. People that are supported by these standards are described as “underrepresented groups," including women, racial groups, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities either cognitive or physical.
The new standards stated by the Academy range from A-D and the film has to meet two out of four of these standards.
The new A-D standards primarily only ask for at least one or two underrepresented groups. There are standards for lead, supporting roles, and minor roles for underrepresented groups as if they’re a rarity. These bare-minimum standards won’t make a change because most “Best Picture” films have fulfilled these requirements, yet the nominees are still majority white.
Oscar Academy affiliate Jennifer Todd is on the Board of Governors for the Academy, representing the Producers Branch. Regarding the new measures, “We recently announced new representation and inclusion standards for films qualifying for Oscars in the Best Picture category. It is part of our Academy Aperture 2025 initiative,” said Todd.
When it comes to whether there will be more new and unique films coming ahead for nomination. Todd states, “Yes although it’s not really up to the Academy to determine what stories get told. It’s a group that awards excellence in film, so we are encouraging thoughtfulness of diversity across the board when making a film.”
Regarding whether this change encourages films to steer away from stereotypical depictions of people of color, Todd said, “Again the Academy is not meant to guide filmmaking but rather help put standards in place in order to be recognized in excellence. I do think in the Film and TV business right now there is a universal awareness we need to stop depicting characters based on racial stereotypes.”
This recurring issue was highlighted by the Twitter #OscarsSoWhite hashtag in January 2015. Former lawyer April Reign created the hashtag in reaction to the announcement of 20 white actors nominated in the Best Actress/Actor and Best Supporting Actress/Actor categories.
By the 2016 Oscars, when there hadn’t been any change, Spike Lee, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith announced via social media that they were boycotting the awards. To see a reprisal of #OscarsSoWhite during the 2020 Oscars wasn’t a surprise.
After some criticism, former Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced in 2016 that she and the board would double the “number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020”. Of the 54 members on the board of governors in 2015-2016, 17 were women, and only two board members were people of color -- Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Daryn Okada.
Even with new additions to the board and new actions put in place by Isaacs, an African-American woman, the nominees in all categories were primarily white and there wasn’t much of a change. Under the new Academy President David Rubin, the board of governors 2020-2021 consists of 26 women and 12 people of color. The amount of women hasn’t even doubled, but the amount of people of color has increased sixfold. Looking at the February 2020 awards the majority of nominees in all categories were primarily white.
The 2024 standards for “Best Picture” are the Academy’s latest attempt to make a change, but it seems that this may have the same end-result where diversity is not increased.
Since 1986, only 13 African-American films have been nominated for “Best Picture” with only “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight” winning. Most of these nominated films are about the African-American struggle and having to measure up to white people. Black Panther didn’t win “Best Picture,” yet it had strength, no stereotypes, different shades of blackness, and was set in a fictional African nation. When the new standards are in effect, there has to be room for new stories of diverse people, without glorifying trauma.
