The Oscars now have DEI rules, but some say it’s just a performance

The national reckoning over racial justice following the killing of George Floyd has galvanized many of the country’s most prominent institutions into action, few more than the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After years of criticism for overlooking female directors and actors of color, the academy announced a flood diversity-oriented changes. One high-profile move involved the academy’s most coveted trophy: To qualify for the Best Picture Oscar, films had to meet a new set of diversity and inclusivity. standards.

This new rule, which will be applied for the first time during this Sunday’s ceremony, is complicated and extensive.

A checklist of four categories and nine subcategories covers almost every aspect of the film production pipeline. Diversity is taken into account when hiring actors, directors, make-up artists, publicists, interns. This also applies to the plot of the film. To qualify, films must demonstrate compliance with two of four major categories of representation: on-screen (actors, plot), off-screen leadership (set designers, makeup artists), training programs and marketing.

Academy leaders light up like theater marquees when they talk about the standards, calling them a success and pointing to a 2023 membership survey in which 85 percent of respondents said it was “important” that the organization lead on representation, inclusion and equality.

But critics from various perspectives in the film industry have described the standards as the equivalent of tinsel — flimsy and flashy — that does more to gild Hollywood’s image than to help people the movie business has long overlooked.

Executives at some of the major film companies said the diversity mandates have done little to change the way they make films, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to appear anti-inclusion, especially because the standards are so easily met.

The director Spike Lee, whose films often explore the country’s tortured history with racism, said that while he thinks the academy’s “heart is in the right place,” the standards have “many loopholes.” Mr Lee, who declined to comment further, has also said nothing will change unless the studio gatekeepers who greenlight films have more diverse backgrounds.

On the more conservative side of Hollywood – or what can seem conservative in such a deep blue enclave – actor Richard Dreyfuss, who often takes swipes at his more liberal colleagues, has called the best image reigns ‘thoughtless’, ‘patronising’ and an infringement of artistic freedom. “They’re making me throw up,” he said angrily.

By several measures, diversification has improved and this year’s Oscars look much more like America in 2024. Seven of the 20 acting nominees come from historically underrepresented groups. Lily Gladstone is the first Native American nominee for best actress for her role in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Colman Domingo was nominated for best actor for his role as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.

And the best pictures category includes films with diverse casts, such as “Barbie” and “American Fiction,” and stories, such as “Past Lives,” about a fateful reunion between a Korean-American woman and her childhood friend.

Then there’s “Oppenheimer,” which received thirteen nominations and is widely seen by handicappers as the frontrunner for best Oscar. The film has profound themes and euphoric reviews – exactly the kind of work the academy often honors.

But for historical context, the cast is almost entirely white. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the biographical film is largely set during World War II, when the military and most of American society were still segregated. The plot – about the secret program to develop the atomic bomb – focuses on powerful and privileged men working at the country’s most elite academic institutions.

‘Oppenheimer’ still more than met the diversity requirements for Best Film.

It cleared one standard for off-screen hiring, as nearly a dozen women held senior positions on the crew, including costume designer, set designer, editor and lead hairstylist. At least one senior role was filled by someone from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group: the head of makeup, Luisa Abel, who is Hispanic.

Even without these hiring decisions, “Oppenheimer” would have qualified. That’s because the studio, Universal, has created internal programs, career training and audience development that help it comply with the rules for almost every picture it makes.

Since 2021, Universal has been conducting a comprehensive crew training program for underrepresented individuals. The majority of Universal films participate, and “Oppenheimer” was no exception.

Universal, more so than some other studios, also has a diverse marketing and distribution team, including Dwight Cane, the studio’s marketing president, who is Black. (All of his counterparts at other major studios are white.)

Supporters of the standards said they were never intended as a panacea for Hollywood’s representation problems, but as a way to spark a broader conversation about diversity.

“It’s not difficult to meet the standards; I’ll be the first to say that,” said Jeanell English, who worked at the academy on its impact and inclusion efforts. until last summer. “But what they are doing is starting critical conversations in this community about representation.”

If they had been too strict, Ms English added: “You would have lost a lot of support and momentum.”

The academy has been under fire for years, especially after the “Oscars So White” movement in 2015 and 2016, when voters put forward exclusively white nominees.

There was subsequent improvement when the academy significantly expanded its membership base. But some critics argue that change has not come quickly enough. a new study on the gender, race and ethnicity of directors by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has dismissed promises to diversify as “performative acts of the entertainment industry and not as real steps toward promoting change.”

And some worry that the standards could hinder artistic vision and don’t want the academy to interfere in creative decisions.

“Yes, there does need to be diversification,” said Best Actor winner F. Murray Abraham. “But I hope our search for it will expand rather than hinder our creative instincts.”

As flexible as the new rules appear to be, there are still problems with exclusion. More than 250 Hollywood insiders signed an open letter in January imploring the academy to revise its standards to include Jews.

“While we applaud the academy’s efforts to increase diverse and authentic stories, an inclusion effort that excludes Jews is both steeped in anti-Semitism and misunderstood,” said the letter, which was signed by Mayim Bialik, among others. Tiffany Haddish and Amy Schumer.

As Universal discovered, the academy’s demands brought with it another problem: the possibility of lawsuits. Studios enjoy broad First Amendment protection when making casting decisions as a matter of artistic freedom. But the studios, not the academy, could be held liable if a white man were to successfully sue because, for example, he had been denied a crew job because of the standards.

Universal’s lawyers also warned that asking employees certain questions — detailed questions needed to fill out the academy’s forms — was illegal. (“Are you gay?” “Do you have an intellectual disability?”) To get around that hurdle, the studio decided to approach 20 senior marketing executives and ask: This is the diversity information the academy wants – would you volunteer to feel comfortable feel sharing? About half answered yes.

Meredith Shea, the academy’s chief membership, impact and industry officer, said the inclusion standards were always intended as an incentive, not an edict.

“The goal is not to be exclusionary,” Ms. Shea said. “It’s not about telling people what stories to tell, how to tell them, who to hire or how to cast. We just want everyone to have the widest lens possible during the filmmaking process. Are you at least having discussions about bringing in people who have been historically excluded?

Marc Tracy reporting contributed.