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Being one of the most celebrated figures in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg has been a vocal supporter of the Academy Awards and has been the recipient of three Academy wins over his illustrious run in the industry. The filmmaker was also one of the major names who came forward to address the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which garnered traction in 2015, given the lack of diversity in the nominations of that year and the following one.
While many accused the older members of the Academy (predominantly white males) of racism, the director claimed this wasn’t the case, as he highlighted another controversial practice that riddled the Oscars.
Steven Spielberg refuted the racism connotations against the Academy
Weighing his stance on the controversy,Steven Spielbergshared that recent history (referring to wins for12 Years a Slave) should have been an indicator that dormant racism wasn’t the underlying issue“because of the amount of white Academy members”.
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He further added (viaAwards Chatter’s podcast) that stripping older Academy members of their voting rights wasn’t something that he could 100% get behind, stressing:
I’m also not 100 percent sure that taking votes away from Academy members who have paid their dues and maybe are retired now and have done great service — maybe they’ve not won a nomination, which would have given them immunity to the new rules, but they have served proudly and this is their industry, too — to strip their votes? I’m not 100 percent behind that.
But the director did speak against the snubbing of Idris Elba andStraight Outta Compton, which initially fueled the controversy, as he expressed Elba’s performance was one of the best of that year.
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Moreover, he did advocate for the importance of diversity, as his longtime publicist Marvin Levy, a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors, expressed that the Academy was taking an initiative over its lack of diversity.
Steven Spielberg is against extreme Oscar campaigning
While Spielberg wasn’t entirely sure about the racism accusations against the Academy, one thing he did condemn was the extremity of Oscar campaigning. Considering he once found himself at the receiving end of the extremecampaigning tacticsofHarvey Weinstein, which led toSaving Private Ryanbeing snubbed, he called for some regulations on it, especially regarding“enticements.”
Although he isn’t entirely against campaigning, to Spielberg, the act of“sending elaborate brochures and baskets”should be reduced to zero, as such practices often boil down to“the power of persuasion over the power of the story”.
I don’t think there’s anything I can say that’s going to stop that from happening, because everybody likes to go to a good party. I don’t want to say I’m against having a good party, but there’s something about actual campaigning, where what you’re campaigning for has been forgotten and it’s [about] the power of persuasion over the power of the story and of the contributions … that’s what I’m sad about.
On the bright side, things have certainly improved, as in 2020, the Oscarsreportedthat the Academy has doubled its female members and tripled its members of color. Diversity has also been noticeable among the nominees and wins in recent years.
Santanu Roy
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2539
Santanu Roy is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on movies, with over 2,000 articles under his belt. He has been pursuing a degree in Animation and possesses a deep love for the medium of animation. Having spent the better part of the last two years pumping out articles for FW, Santanu excels at covering movie analysis and news surrounding Pixar, DCU, DreamWorks, and Batman’s cinematic legacy.With psychological thrillers and intimate slice-of-life dramas ranking among his favorite genres, Santanu is a big admirer of Luca Guadagnino, Shane Black, Park Chan-wook, and Brad Bird.
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