My take on the Oscar's contraversy from a screenwriter and a Film Executive

[GreatGazoo]

34. The Academy Awards were created to try and stop Unions in Hollywood. They didn't.

Only about 5% of what gets funded by major studios are considered "prestige" pictures, artful films with something to say, 'chewing gum for the soul,' etc. The rest are simplistic and derivative of other films that have filled seats. Until the 1960, directors hated to be called artists. Roger Corman, for example, helped launch a lot of careers but his talent, according to Wall St, was that he could make a film cheap and on time.

20 years back, I worked for a major studio promoting films for consideration by the Academy. It is in many stars deals that the studio will spend a certain amount of money to promote their work for an award. So what started as a Union thwarting move has become a deal thing with a few basic maxims:

- Films released late in the year have a much better chance at Noms and Awards than those release in the summer.

- The Academy, those who vote, is made up of everyone who has ever won an Oscar, about 5000 people) and they are in for life soooo...The Academy is made up of lots of older white people. It has become less conservative in recent years but it lags behind the larger culture.

- Academy members see lots of films but they won't watch everything and if they don't see a film it has no chance at their vote, for example "Straight Outta Compton" had no chance.

- Some actors make films that they know are "Oscar bait" Think of Matthew McConaughey making "Dallas Buyers Club" -- the movie played with themes that have won Best Actor before with Tom hanks and "Philadelphia" (1993), Sean Penn and "Milk" (2008). This year's major Oscar bait film is "Trumbo" and Bryan Cranston is odds on to win even though the role was not as difficult as others he has tackled.

The year I worked on the Awards, we were promoting an Alan Parker film that dealt with the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. It had the issues you cite -- it was overtly anti-racist and refused to deal in the easy stereotypes. To make matters worse, the first Gulf War was raging, Desert Storm. "Come See the Paradise" was DOA.

The vote of the people comes at the box-office (or NetFlix) and is very much at odds with what gets picked by the Academy. The Academy is older, wealthier, white people with direct connection to the film business and what they pick is films that are in one way or another about them.

Oscar has gotten more diverse over the last two decades and all of the actors I list here are now voting members of the Academy: Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for "Ray" (2004) and deserved the hell out of it. Forest Whitaker won in 2006 for his protrayal of Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland". Nominated but not winning: Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela (2009), Chiwetel Ejiofor for "12 Years a Slave", Denzel Washington for "Flight" (2012), Will Smith for "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006) (lost to Forest Whitaker), Don Chealdel for "Hotel Rwanda" (2004) (lost to Jamie Foxx), Morgan Freeman for "Shawshank Redemption" and "Driving Miss Daisy", and Dexter Gordon in "Round Midnight" (1986). Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for "The Color Purple" (1985)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Actor

While there is improvement in honoring AA actors, for Actress, I see only one AA woman in 90 years worth of movies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Actress