Oscars Inclusion Standards Will Only Count for Best Picture
You’re not going to believe this, but it turns out Hollywood’s latest big virtue signal was an empty gesture. A few years ago, after an Academy Awards ceremony was deemed too white (not the one where Jada Pinkett made a video about them snubbing the husband she cuckolds; the 2020 one), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the body of film representatives that holds the Oscars – put together a new set of standards movies must meet to be considered for an Oscar. These criteria – called RAISE for Representation and Inclusion Standards for Eligibility – are all based on diversity, whether it’s race, gender, sexuality, disability, or whatever falls under the umbrella. The applicants must fill out a RAISE form, which is confidential, and meet at least two areas of eligibility, either in front of or behind the camera. (I’ll get into this more in a bit because it’s a hilarious con game.)
This year, however, the rules have been changed, and it’s only coming out because of the Frequently Asked Questions part of the Academy’s website, on which Deadline is reporting. For 2024, RAISE standards will only be required for films submitted for Best Picture consideration; there is now a choice to opt out of that, meaning the RAISE criteria do not apply. So, if you’re submitting a new superhero blockbuster for Best Visual Effects but hire an all-male heterosexual Scandinavian cast and crew, you’re good to go. And this is barely anything anyway because, for years, people have known the Academy chooses its Best Picture winner based on politics or social issues – perceived or otherwise – more so than its quality. So, in effect, nothing much will change.
But when you look at the RAISE rules, nothing ever did, even if you apply them to all categories. The criteria, which you can read in full here, come down to four main “standards.” The first is casting at least one racial or ethnic minority in a lead or “significant supporting” role, or having at least 30% of the rest of the cast be women, racial or ethnic minorities, LGBTetc., or people who have “cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing,” or having the main storyline be about issues surrounding any of these groups. The second is having someone in a major creative position from one of these groups, or six members of the creative or technical teams, or 30% of the overall crew. The third is giving paid apprenticeships or internships, or “training opportunities and skills development,” to any of these groups. And fourth and last is if the studio has at least one member of at least two of these groups in its “creative and development, marketing, publicity, and/or distribution teams.”
So, what American movies fit these criteria? I’d say probably 150,000,000,000% of them. You can go back decades and have a hard time finding movies with no women or racial minorities in lead or supporting roles alone. Film crews are largely made of blue-collar workers, who come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds. This essentially applies to historical movies, like ones that take place in World War II or the Roman Empire or something, but that’s just in front of the camera; anyone can work on a movie or be in the marketing department. It was always a sleight-of-hand to make the Academy and Hollywood look like they were civil rights heroes while doing absolutely nothing differently. This new measure is just another step in that direction, something to let any movie that doesn’t want to submit for Best Picture – which is almost all of them – off the hook for their lofty new diversity standards that changed nothing in the first place.
I could give a whole spiel about how the standards were always ridiculous and shouldn’t apply to any category, including Best Picture, that art should be judged on its merits as opposed to the various racial and sexual identities of the artists, but there’s no point because, in effect, it still is (as much as the Academy is capable of doing that, at least). The RAISE standards were a masquerade from the beginning; loosening them just further highlights that.
