The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Sept. 8 new guidelines for the nomination of their Best Picture category that will take effect in 2024 at the 96th Oscars presentation. These guidelines require that, in order to be considered for nomination in this category, a film meet specific criteria showing diversity efforts.
These criteria are divided into four categories, “on-screen representation, themes and narratives,” “creative leadership and project team,” “industry access and opportunities” and “audience development.” Of these four standards, referred to as Standards A, B, C and D, at least two must be fully achieved.
An in-depth look at these standards can be found on the official website for the Oscars. The statement, posted on their website and titled “Academy establishes representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility,” said that these standards were “designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.”
The announcement created a buzz among movie fans. Coby Bloomer, a senior theatre education major at Winthrop University and self-proclaimed movie fan, said that he witnessed some misinterpretation of this new rule when it was first announced.
Bloomer specifically referenced many fans concerned that their favorite movies won’t be nominated because they don’t feature a diverse cast or theme. He said it is an important distinction with the two-fourths rule that “you can still tell those stories, but do it in a way that allows opportunities for all people.”
A big question regarding this announcement is, why now?
“There are a lot of movements going on and conversations that are finally being had that have needed to be had for a long time and I think it’s giving these people no option to hide anymore,” Bloomer said.
At first glance, these guidelines seem to be a great effort towards supporting Black, indigenous people of color within the film industry. However, it could also be seen as an arbitrary checklist that films need to complete in order to qualify for this one award.
“While I appreciate them trying to incorporate more diversity in their nominations… I feel like maybe they’re too worried about ‘being diverse’ [rather] than actually being diverse,” Taji Mayberry, a Black senior psychology major at Winthrop University.
These guidelines are a part of the Academy Aperture 2025 initiative. This is a continuation of the A2020 Initiative, started in 2016. Through this first initiative, the Academy “set specific inclusion goals… to
double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and significantly grow its international membership by 2020,” according to the Oscars website’s page on the Academy Aperture Initiative.
In 2019, “women comprised 20% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 100 grossing films” according to Martha M. Lauzen, P.h.D in a
study titled “The Celluloid Ceiling.” This is an increase from 14 percent in 2016, when the initiative was launched.
Although these numbers have not doubled as the Academy had hoped, they do show a slow change for the better within the film industry in terms of inclusion and equal opportunity.
While Mayberry said that he feels this recent statement from the Academy may be a bit performative, he said it could still be helpful in “bringing awareness to the fact that our (BIPOC) stories are just as good and just as important as anyone else’s.”
“I feel like when you see films work to be diverse to be able to earn a nomination for best picture… you’ll see it happening in every other category underneath,” Bloomer said.
This could mean a sort of domino effect, creating the possibility for change in all aspects of the film industry, slowly but surely.
Graphic by Lizzy Talbert
