Everyone knows about the annual Academy Awards in Hollywood. From categories such as Best Supporting Actress to Best Animated Feature, actors, actresses, producers, and directors come together every year to see themselves and/or their films win various prestigious awards. At the end of each ceremony, the last award given is Best Picture, which has also been considered the most respected award. 

However, “five years after the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag triggered controversy, the group behind the awards has made inclusion a requirement to be considered to win them,” says Brian Lowry, CNN. 

“On-screen representation, themes and narratives; creative leadership and project team; industry access and opportunities; and audience development,” says Sonia Rao from the Washington Post on the new requirements the Academy Awards will be implementing beginning 2024.

At least two of these four new requirements for films in order to be eligible for the Best Picture award. In total, thirty percent of the cast and behind-the-scenes workers must come from underrepresented groups. These underrepresented groups include women, people of color, people from the LGBTQ+ community, and more. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences claimed that their goal was to “encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.” Lowry reports. Before 2020, the majority of films that won the Best Picture Award were dominated by Caucasian actors, actresses, and directors. As stated before, after the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag trended on social media, the Academy organization was placed in the spotlight to make improvements in this area. 

It is not only in the casting of the film crew and actors/actresses that will change, but also the members of the Academy as well. 

In June 2020, “an additional 819 new members were invited into the group, 45% of them women and 36% people of color.” states Lowry. 

Since 2016, efforts have constantly been made to improve the diversity of the Academy. Already, a couple films including Parasite, Hotel Mumbai, and The Farewell have started to represent ethnic minorities and groups. The 2020 Oscars’ Best Picture award actually was won by the producers of Parasite, which surprisingly fulfilled all these requirements, being the first South Korean film to receive the award.

So, what does this mean for the future of bigger films and pictures? Hopefully, the coming years will see “progress for marginalized communities [and] championed by marginalized communities” tweeted April Reign on Sept. 8.

Graphic courtesy of FREEVECTOR.COM