New Oscars standards say best picture contenders must be inclusive to compete

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This is either a virtue-signaling non-change for the reasons that Twitter thread articulated, or a backdoor to giving those in charge of certain East Asian film markets even more say in what gets produced. Possibly a bit of both.

I guess we're gonna see Black Panther 2 and Captain Marvel 2 nominations then.

I can't speak for a thus-far-hypothetical second Captain Marvel movie, but the first one was really not that conspicuously ~diverse~ other than the director and the lead.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's a start.

What I'd prefer is a requirement for cast and crew makeup together to reflect the average US ratios. So you gotta have at least 18% Hispanic or Latinx, 13% African American, 6% Asian, 1% First Nations, .2%  Pacific Islander. Obvs these would be thresholds. With gender, though, I'd actually prefer male vs female to be about equivalent, with trans folks being at least .5% of the total and non-binary folks getting a representative amount as well, which unfortunately there isn't data on yet really, but let's say .5% for them as well.

And if you want to make a movie that doesn't fit these standards, ain't nobody going to stop you. You just wouldn't be eligible for whatever award was brave enough to have these requirements as necessary for being considered for their award.

It'd also be cool to have adult age ratios in there too, basically with the under-18 numbers going to allow you to use as buffer. So at least 9% folks being 19-25, at least 12% 26-34, 26% 35-54, 13% 55-64, 16% ≥65, and then the remaining 20% to fit in any age category. Though my categories would be 18-27, 28-37, 38-47, 48-57, 58-67, ≥68, but I couldn't find a quick source on the percentages of those breakdowns that didn't require me to do my own math.

The fact that there are 20% of Americans who are under 18 would give lots of buffer room. This would, I think, help weed out "old white dudes" being a large percentage of producers and directors and also help somewhat with the always using actors younger than the ages they're supposed to represent, but the buffer would still let you make Grace and Frankie or Grumpy Old Men or a college movie.

Genuine question: Is this a joke?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's a start.

What I'd prefer is a requirement for cast and crew makeup together to reflect the average US ratios. So you gotta have at least 18% Hispanic or Latinx, 13% African American, 6% Asian, 1% First Nations, .2%  Pacific Islander. Obvs these would be thresholds. With gender, though, I'd actually prefer male vs female to be about equivalent, with trans folks being at least .5% of the total and non-binary folks getting a representative amount as well, which unfortunately there isn't data on yet really, but let's say .5% for them as well.

And if you want to make a movie that doesn't fit these standards, ain't nobody going to stop you. You just wouldn't be eligible for whatever award was brave enough to have these requirements as necessary for being considered for their award.

It'd also be cool to have adult age ratios in there too, basically with the under-18 numbers going to allow you to use as buffer. So at least 9% folks being 19-25, at least 12% 26-34, 26% 35-54, 13% 55-64, 16% ≥65, and then the remaining 20% to fit in any age category. Though my categories would be 18-27, 28-37, 38-47, 48-57, 58-67, ≥68, but I couldn't find a quick source on the percentages of those breakdowns that didn't require me to do my own math.

The fact that there are 20% of Americans who are under 18 would give lots of buffer room. This would, I think, help weed out "old white dudes" being a large percentage of producers and directors and also help somewhat with the always using actors younger than the ages they're supposed to represent, but the buffer would still let you make Grace and Frankie or Grumpy Old Men or a college movie.

Genuine question: Is this a joke?

Imagine trying to make a super realistic WW2 war film about nazis under those criteria.

Do the Right Thing, one of the most pointedly antiracist movies ever made, would be ineligible under these criteria because only one of the named characters is Latina, none are Asian, and very few of them are old.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I actually am interested in hearing out an argument that Do the Right Thing having a crew that reflected the racial demographics of the US as a whole would have improved the movie. I'll concede that these sorts of quotas do make some sense for genres that don't tend to be "about" any identity group's concerns in particular (generic romcoms, high fantasy, superhero movies that aren't Black Panther), but the idea that they would improve all movies across the board is just not a mature approach to how to get minority stories told.