We have all heard in some vague words that the Oscars are rigged. However, a lot of people do not particularly know what exactly is the main issue and the underlying cause. In this post, we will be discussing how and why the Oscars are notorious for being biased.
Another important detail is the structure of the voting group at the Oscars. There have been countless controversial wins to point out some scandalous and horrifying patterns at play in the Oscar decisions. We will be talking about various occasions on which these patterns have been observed.
If you wish to witness some of these moments, you can watch all of the old Oscars ceremonies on demand at Hulu. You can also live stream the Academy Awards on ABC. All you need is a stable internet connection like Spectrum who have a robust customer service network. If you run into any issues with your connection, you can call numero de Spectrum and they will troubleshoot your problem for you.
Now, without further ado, let us talk about the stark prejudice and issues with diversity and inclusion that the Academy has displayed.
The Origins of the Academy Awards
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The first award ceremony the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences conducted was a brief affair. The hosts distributed 15 awards in 15 minutes in a peppy fashion while the guests ate dinner. This was at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
The academy itself had just been founded two years earlier by the powerful studio boss Louis B Mayer, as part of an effort to stave off the unionization of the movie industry.
Issues with the Voting Process
While its original purposes had mostly to do with union busting, over the years, the invite system, at least theoretically assured the awards would be decided by the absolute top level of entertainment industry professionals. It also, however, made the voting membership a fairly insular and homogenous group.
Controversial Winners
There are several occasions where the Best Picture award made everyone leap out of their chairs. Sadly, this was not the good kind of leaping, the leap of excitement. It was that of disbelief and sheer shock. Here are some examples of such awards:
- In 1959 they selected the singing Teenage Courtesan musical Gigi over the powerful Sidney Poitier vehicle, The Defiant Ones.
- In 1986, The Duel, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep Romance Out of Africa beat Steven Spielberg’s emotional adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
- In 1990, Driving Miss Daisy, a relatively toothless meditation on racism prevailed over Spike Lee’s revolutionary Do the Right Thing.
While the situation has marginally improved, progress has been slow. The already greatly forgotten Green Book won out over more highly regarded choices like Spike Lee’s Black Klansman. In 2019, for example.
Green Book, a film about racism, was controversial for among other things, being co-written by a man accused of making racist comments. Its victory drew a clearly startled reaction from presenter Samuel L. Jackson and Lee himself almost stormed out of the room.
Biases and Criticisms
It was a pattern so pervasive that in 2015 it exploded into a national conversation on social media under the Oscars. So white hashtag, there were no people of color nominated in 2015 the movement led directly to the Academy, making efforts to diversify its voting base.
As the King’s Speech’s 2010 win over the Social Network shows, the situation doesn’t have to be rooted in politics for the Academy to let a moment pass them by. For example, the Academy has been accused of having a bias against giving its highest honor to animated movies and commercially popular genre films.
As recently as 2018, then, outcry almost led to an award for outstanding achievement in popular film. But the idea was quickly quashed after a greater backlash.
Summing Up
It all seems like a bit of a mess, but that’s because the role of the Oscars has shifted so drastically over time. With so many expectations to fulfill, the Oscars are never going to be able to please everyone. After all these years, the Oscars are still doing the very thing they hoped they would be driving professionals to do their best work and keeping audiences in love with the movies.
