I can remember watching the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Grammy Awards when I was a kid. It seemed like something that everyone did, and you could pretty much count on there being people with whom to talk about it the next day at school.
However, somewhere along the way, awards shows became unwatchable and beside the point. What once felt like a celebration of the best pop culture had to offer and a must-see event was suddenly a waste of time. And millions of Americans realized this. According to LA Magazine, the Oscars used to get 55 million viewers in the United States during the 1990s. Last year, however, the broadcast only garnered 9.85 million.
Related: Is There Any Way to Save the Oscars?
This makes sense. Who needs to see these Hollywood elitists celebrating themselves and pretending to be better and smarter than everyone else?
I don’t recall precisely when I came to this realization. Still, I’m sure the last time I watched any of these awards shows, I was in high school — well before I even cared enough about politics to be put off by the soapboxing and virtue signaling.
That soapboxing and virtue signaling is what will kill the industry that these awards shows aim to celebrate.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is on course to disqualify films from being eligible to win the coveted Oscar for Best Picture if they don’t have enough black, gay, and disabled people in the cast and crew.
This move is part of the Academy’s Aperture 2025 initiative, which it passed in 2020 in response to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy five years earlier, in order to promote more diversity in the industry. Aperture 2025 was started by Ava DuVernay, a black filmmaker. According to the Daily Mail, it was “developed by the academy to set criteria – which included diversifying nearly every aspect of a movie, from cast and crew to production, marketing, financing, distribution and even internships by 30 percent.”
But, as the Mail notes, this new standard could have kept last year’s Best Picture winner, Nomadland, from qualifying because of its all-white cast, despite the fact that it was directed by an Asian filmmaker.
Many wonder whether this is a sign that the awards show is accelerating its own demise. “The Oscars are tanking,” says Scott Johnson of LA Magazine. “And no matter how well-intentioned Aperture 2025 may be, the initiative isn’t going to fix that problem. On the contrary, at this rate, by 2025, filmmakers with even the most equitable and diverse sets may not give a damn whether their films are eligible for an Oscar or not because hardly anyone will be watching.”
To Hollywood’s credit, not everyone in the industry is on board with this ridiculous initiative.
“It’s filmmaking by affirmative action,” one Academy member told Johnson. “It’s totally daft, and it can’t be done.”
“It’s meddlesome and intrusive,” said a veteran producer.
Another filmmaker interviewed for the article says that the initiative will make it harder to make movies.
But Academy president David Rubin doesn’t seem to care. “The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them,” he said.
That industry insiders are only comfortable speaking anonymously about their opposition tells you a lot. It seems more likely to me that, while the Oscars may destroy itself with this initiative, it may take the entire industry with it. Who wants to risk getting canceled for being a part of a film that is #TooWhite?
Hollywood made its bed, and now it has to lie in it.