Making Sense of the New Oscar Diversity Rules

FEATURING DARNELL HUNT – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which each year hands out the most prestigious awards to filmmakers, actors and others, just announced its solution to years of criticism that it has excluded people of color. Films must meet a series of criteria for future award considerations, to be phased in over the next few years, in order to be eligible for the Oscars.

The new “diversity and inclusion” criteria were apparently modeled after the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)’s new standards. But within days critics pounced on the rule changes saying they were either inadequate or went too far.

Read the Hollywood Diversity Report 2020, HERE.

Darnell Hunt is Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA, and professor of sociology and African American Studies at UCLA. He is the author with Dr. Ana-Christina Ramón of the 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report entitled A Tale of Two Hollywoods.