Interesting Quote: Academy CEO Dawn Hudson

I want to address what you said about political correctness, which makes me a little crazy. The Academy is tradition-bound, it is rule-bound, it is not trying to be politically correct, never has been. We are an elite institution. That elite institution is part of who we are, and that definition won't change. We are the best of the best in the film industry. We don't feel that we have looked far and wide enough for the best of the best. It's not about political correctness, it's about building the best team, the best institution, the best artists. Because unless you have the best artists as members, unless you have the best artists voting on the Academy Awards, you don't have a real reflection of the best of our film culture. We're not talking about [just these] nominations. The nominations we can't control.

Please check out the rest of the article. It's very interesting

Academy Members whine about the New Voting Rules

More interesting info about the Academy's changes.

Now that diversity seems to be at the forefront, some of the voters are hurt, victimized and shocked at the overhaul. Yes, my friends, white privilege is flooding out in these responses to the new initiative.

THR has some of these responses from the older white Academy voters. I'll share a few with you:

"It's trying to clear the decks so the show can go on in February without people screaming," vented Sam Weisman, 68, of the directors branch. "As a member who has stepped partially away from the industry, it feels like someone like me is being victimized. I'm in the mentoring phase of my life — I teach — so I'm now supposed to not be relevant, even though I'm being as relevant, in working with young artists, as people who have current credits are. And, by the way, I've contributed a lot of time to the Academy as a judge for the Nicholl Fellowships and the Student Academy Awards. So basically they're saying that I don't matter anymore. It seems like this is a hastily put-together reaction to a firestorm."

Tab Hunter, 84, a member of the actors branch, concurred, calling the announcement "bullshit." He elaborated, "Obviously, it's a thinly-veiled ploy to kick out older white contributors — the backbone of the industry — to make way for younger, 'politically-correct' voters. The Academy should not cave in to media hype and change the rules without talking to or getting votes from all members first."

Documentary branch member Arnold Schwartzman, an Oscar winner for 1982's Genocide, was aggrieved on behalf of his fellow members. "I'm quite angry," he said. "I'm all right, I've got my Oscar. But what about all of those people that were elected to the Academy because they are skilled, but who never got an Oscar nomination?" He continued, "I just resent being characterized by some people as a racist. We judge films on the merits. There were some great films with white people that didn't get in that I was upset about. Race had nothing to do with any of it."

As you can see, this change has called many in question and their responses are very telling. All I ask is that people think about why this happened and why there are drastic measures going down. If folks were keen of this issue, we wouldn't be at this point of action. So, I say "Lick it up, and deal."

The times are a'changing

Interesting Quote: George Clooney

If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated. I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?

I think we have a lot of points we need to come to terms with. I find it amazing that we’re an industry that in the 1930s, most of our leads were women. And now a woman over 40 has a very difficult time being a lead in a movie. We’re seeing some movement. Jennifer Lawrence and Patricia Arquette have made the loud pronouncement about wage disparity, have put a stamp on the idea that we got to pay attention. But we should have been paying attention long before this. I think that African Americans have a real fair point that the industry isn’t representing them well enough. I think that’s absolutely true.

Let’s look back at some of the nominees. I think around 2004, certainly there were black nominees — like Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman. And all of a sudden, you feel like we’re moving in the wrong direction. There were nominations left off the table. There were four films this year: “Creed” could have gotten nominations; “Concussion” could have gotten Will Smith a nomination; Idris Elba could have been nominated for “Beasts of No Nation;” and “Straight Outta Compton” could have been nominated. And certainly last year, with “Selma” director Ava DuVernay — I think that it’s just ridiculous not to nominate her.

But honestly, there should be more opportunity than that. There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.

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#OscarsSoWhite forces Changes in the Academy

Due to the backlash of the Oscar nominees being so white, the academy has got together and reset the rules.

The new rules will increase the number of women and minorities in the academy by 2020 and limiting lifetime voting rights. Personally, I wish they can fast forward this for next year, but hey, you can't fight city hall.

LA Times have the scoop:

The new academy rules are designed to speed up the process of change, as the board passed a series of measures that would remove from its voting rolls members who have not been active in the film industry for many years and establish a precedent requiring active engagement in the industry for new members. The new rules stipulate that:

• Each new member's voting status will last 10 years and will be renewed if that member has been active in motion pictures during that decade.

• Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three 10-year terms or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.

• Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status, which means they enjoy the privileges of membership, such as access to screenings and events, but cannot vote on the Oscars.

It's a great first step, however, it's a bigger problem within the studios. The changes have to start with the writers, creators and director. The next step is to get these studios together.