(MSN) If it were released today, “The Godfather” would possibly have no chance of winning a Best Picture Oscar.
That’s because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is beholden to new inclusivity standards. Starting with the March 2024 awards, movies will not be considered for a Best Picture nomination unless they feature a lead or significant supporting character from an “underrepresented racial or ethnic group,” have a main storyline that focuses on an underrepresented group, or at least 30% of the cast comes from two or more underrepresented groups (women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ or the disabled).
It’s got some voting members of the Academy up in arms.
“It’s completely ridiculous,” one director fumed to The Post. “I’m for diversity, but to make you cast certain types of people if you want to get nominated? That makes the whole process contrived. The person who is right for the part should get the part. Why should you be limited in your choices? But it’s the world we’re in. This is crazy.”
Richard Dreyfuss certainly agrees. In discussing the new standards of inclusion with “The Firing Line” on PBS last month, the veteran actor blasted the rules: “They make me vomit.”
Oscars voters: new diversity rules for Best Picture ‘completely ridiculous’© Provided by New York Post
Richard Dreyfuss accepted an Academy Award years before he declared that Oscars’ new rules “make me vomit.”Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Describing movies as “an art form” and “a form of commerce,” the “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” actor continued, “No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is.”
One of Hollywood’s biggest producers told The Post that very few people in the industry favor the new rules — but, unlike Dreyfuss, they don’t speak out for fear of cancel culture.
“Everyone thinks the Academy went too far. It’s ridiculous to tell us we have to regulate our work,” he said. “We talk about it amongst ourselves but it’s not worth speaking up publicly.”
The last several years of Best Picture winners actually already meet the criteria.
Oscars voters: new diversity rules for Best Picture ‘completely ridiculous’© Provided by New York Post
Michelle Yeoh (center) led the cast of “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” this year’s Best Picture winner, which would have qualified for Best Picture with new rules that take effect in 2024.APIn “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the 2023 winner, Michelle Yeoh leads a mostly Asian cast. “CODA,” which won in 2022, centers around a deaf family in Gloucester, Mass. “Nomadland,” from 2021, revolves around Frances McDormand’s widow character who travels the US in a van. “Parasite” (2020) focuses on two South Korean families. The 2019 winner, “Green Book” was controversial because it stood accused of “spoon-feed[ing] racism to white people“ but would still make the cut.But other films nominated this year possibly would not qualify.“’All Quiet on the Western Front’ would not have been nominated,” said the director of the World War I film with a historically accurate white male cast.
“In terms of ‘Elvis,’ there are probably enough women and minorities to hit 30 percent and qualify,” Jim Piazza, co-author of “Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History,” told The Post. “But many of those people are in dance and party scenes and on-screen briefly. How they count will be difficult. There will be a lot of caveats.”
Oscars voters: new diversity rules for Best Picture ‘completely ridiculous’© Provided by New York Post
“Going further back, think about ‘Schindler’s List.’ Should that not have been nominated since there were no non-white people in the primary roles?” asked the director, referencing the 1993 Spielberg movie which largely features white male actors. “I’m wondering if Jewish people would count for ‘underrepresented racial or ethnic group,’ but it would be up to the Academy to figure that out.”
