“These are not Tablets from the mountain,” Paramount Pictures Chairman Jim Gianopulos told me earlier this morning in explaining how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences we…
the committee that crafted the new set of four standards affecting all aspects of filmmaking, both on screen and behind the camera. In order to be eligible for a Best Picture nomination movies will have to meet at least two of the four, ranging from hiring a lead or significant supporting actor all the way to key creative leadership to crew composition to marketing and distribution areas of employment and opportunity for underrepresented groups .
But don’t call them quotas. When I mentioned that a longtime Academy member called me this morning to lament about the changes and said his favorite film, 1953’s WWII drama“It would qualify. We weren’t completely oblivious to films like and other films like that, that by their nature thematically and otherwise didn’t have diverse people in front of the camera, so that is what standards C and D sought to do which is to say ‘yes’ there are films that might not qualify in terms of front of the camera or even in their thematic elements, but you can make progress by institutionalizing access to the industry through internships, mentorships, the representation in marketing and distribution, and so that was the intent. To say is it perfect? Is every film going to have diverse elements by its nature, obviously not. But there are other ways to measure progress and to make progress,” he said. “All the studios to a greater or lesser extent, but is focused on these issues and has diversity and HR departments which are focused on it. I think what this does, at the highest levels of the industry at the Academy is provide some objective standards that we can all measure our progress by. That is the intent, and to create them both to be aspirational and to be objective.” There have been well over 250 comments to the story I posted on Deadline yesterday announcing the new initiative, and a large number of them were negative. Reaction in the industry has been mixed but some have vehemently opposed the new changes. In a since-deleted tweet actress Kirstie Alley called them, “a disgrace to artists everywhere”. Franklin said the blowback from some corners was not unexpected.“We did anticipate this. Whenever you are implementing change it is going to come with conversation, it is going to come with conflict, it is going to come with consideration so we were not surprised,” Franklin said when I asked his opinion of the reaction on social media. “We do think that actually when people take a moment and read through the standards, and see that there is so much flexibility, it will actually help inform how they are looking at it. When you are just reading a headline it is easy to react but when you actually get into the standards and how much flexibility there is for filmmakers and studios and many major distributors to apply it reallyI pointed to one of the comments posted to the original Deadline story, which came from a Black filmmaker. This is what it said: “I’m black and I deeply believe in telling diverse stories but THIS IS THE DUMBEST, MOST ANTI-ART IDEA I HAVE EVER HEARD. The deep level of obnoxious over-pandering here really disgusts me! Nice job ruining the experience for any underrepresented person winning a Best Picture Oscar post-2025 and anybody wanting to make a movie the way THEY want to make a movie! Don’t talk about being inclusive, just be about it. You don’t have to REQUIRE it with quotas!!!! The Academy should be embarrassed!” Franklin faced that criticism head on. “We anticipated there was going to be conversation, to people having different points of view. What I will say to that Black person who wrote that, I think after 2024, 2025 the Oscar will mean even more because there was equal consideration for excellence. The Academy has been around for over 90 years. There is a history at this institution of not giving equal opportunity and consideration for those who created art, especially from diverse backgrounds, so hopefully this will change that. So if anything after 2025 this award will mean, because that consideration will have been given,” he said. “This is not about tokenism, this is not about restriction, this is about
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