It’s almost impossible to make heads or tails of the Motion Picture Academy’s stupid, anti-art diversity rules. A good faith interpretation tells me the following Best Pictures would not have won Best Picture had these stupid, anti-art diversity rules been in place at the time. Keep in mind, I’m only going back 20 years… This is just the last 20 years… Kinda silly to go back any further. Besides, the sheer number of Best Picture winners over just the last 20 years that would have been snubbed for not hitting a stupid racial/gay quota makes the point pretty well, I think. Spotlight (2015)
Argo (2012)
The Artist (2011)
The King’s Speech (2010)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
No County For Old Men (2007)
Departed (2006)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
Chicago (2002)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Gladiator (2000)
Yep, more than half. Lordy, don’t get me started on the 90s… American Beauty, Shakespeare in Love, Titanic, The English Patient, Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Schindler’s List, Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven. Only one from the 90s that would’ve been spared is Dances with Wolves. Chicago and Silence of the Lambs revolve around women, sure, but you have to meet a second quota-criteria, and I don’t see it. Chicago sucked anyway. So basically, what we have here is an affirmative action program, and when you look back, you can see that had this stupid quota system been in place over the last 30 years, most of the movies that earned Best Picture would not have won. Instead the Best Picture winner would not have been the Best Picture, but rather the Best Affirmative Action Picture. Which is kinda sad. Think about it this way… Had Moonlight (2016), The Shape of Water (2017), Green Book (2018), Parasite (2019), and 12 Years a Slave (2013) — all Best Picture winners– won under these new rules, there would be a mental asterisk next to them forever. Did they deserve to win, or are they affirmative action winners?