Academy Awards Come To Their Senses Slightly, Back Down On Diversity Requirements

The organization behind the Academy Awards has worked hard since 2020 to bolster its woke credentials.

They've made any number of changes to affirm their progressive priorities, but one of the most offensive and historic was its creation of diversity requirements for major motion pictures. Essentially, they proudly announced that films submitted for award consideration would have to meet one or multiple made up "inclusivity" standards.

One such standard required that "At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group."

Another demands that "The studio and/or film company has multiple in-house senior executives from among the following underrepresented groups (must include individuals from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups) on their marketing, publicity, and/or distribution teams."

Others were even more absurd, saying that films hoping to win an Academy Award for Best Picture need to focus the "main storyline, theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group."

These rules have been extremely unpopular, even in far left Hollywood.

READ: HOLLYWOOD SOUNDS OFF ON NEW INCLUSIVITY RULES FOR THE OSCARS

And now the Academy is backing down somewhat on their absurd rules, albeit slightly.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - March 27, 2022: Oscar statuettes sit on display backstage during the show at the 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 27, 2022. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Academy Awards Changing Reporting Requirements

Up until this change, any film that wanted consideration for any Academy Award had to submit "identity" data along with its submission.

This data was used by the Academy to track how well films were complying with their indefensible quota system. But a recent update has confirmed that movies that don't care about Best Picture consideration can opt out of reporting their data.

Essentially, if you know your film isn't going to be considered for Best Picture, you can opt out of their reporting system entirely.

That's a massive change that would allow dozens of films, if not hundreds of films, to avoid the absurdity of race reporting.

While it doesn't go far enough in fixing the draconian requirements for all films, the fact that the Academy quietly made this change before even fully enforcing their rules shows how deeply unpopular they are. The moral panic of 2020 helped influence virtue signaling progressive into creating nonsensical, unenforceable standards.

Hollywood, perhaps best exemplified by Disney, has worked hard to prioritize diversity standards over quality filmmaking. The Academy made those misplaced priorities into rules.

This welcome change is almost certainly the first sign of weakening resolve to enforce discrimination. Hopefully there are many more signs to come.