Deborah Daniels: Are the Oscars an example of DEI gone too far? Maybe.

On a recent trip to visit friends, we spent some rainy days watching movies. I had only seen two of the movies that received Oscar nominations, so we tried to watch some of those.

Of course I had already seen “Wicked” (who hasn’t?). I had also seen “Conclave,” which was compelling and masterfully performed by several very talented actors, including Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

On this trip, we added “No Direction Home,” the movie about Bob Dylan’s early years. I had read positive reviews about the acting, specifically by Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbero as Joan Baez. A tremendous movie that I would highly recommend.

These movies received Oscar nominations but strangely didn’t win many awards. My friends and I were perplexed and decided we needed to watch “Anora,” which ran away with multiple awards, including Best Actress and Best Picture. We all thought “Anora” was, in a word, terrible.

By straining, one could discern something of a theme about a young girl in the sex trade who dreams of escaping and living the good life by marrying the ne’er-do-well son of a Russian oligarch. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t work out.

But there was no way we could imagine why this picture beat out other really spectacular movies for a multitude of awards.

So I asked a distant relative who happens to be one of the now 11,000 members of the Academy of Motion Pictures. He shared the “diversity and inclusion” standards adopted by the Academy in 2020 and taking full effect in 2024. Now, if a picture cannot meet at least two of these four standards, it cannot be a finalist for the Best Picture award.

They are:

On-screen representation: At least one lead or significant supporting actor must be from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group; at least 30% of secondary or ensemble roles must be from underrepresented groups, including women, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ individuals, or persons with disabilities; and the main storyline or theme must focus on an underrepresented group.

Creative leadership and crew: At least two department heads (e.g., director, cinematographer, editor) must be from underrepresented groups; at least six other crew members must be members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group; and at least 30% of the entire crew must be from underrepresented groups.

Industry access and opportunities: The studio/production must offer paid internships to underrepresented groups and must have training and mentorship opportunities for
those groups.

Audience development: The studio/distributor must have diversity in marketing, publicity and distribution teams.

No wonder “Conclave” and “No Direction Home” didn’t win. Too white.

I recall that a few years ago, the Oscars were aggressively criticized because there were no minority winners that year. That is understandable, given the diversity of talented actors and directors making movies these days. But the new standards are, to say the least, a significant overreaction to that perhaps justified criticism.

Of course, one might say, what can you expect of Hollywood, which does everything to excess and whose denizens are almost uniformly liberal (and live in California!)?

But might this kind of far-left dogma be at least in part responsible for what is now occurring at both the federal and state levels with respect to destroying all things DEI? Might the vast overreaction on the right not have occurred but for the dogmatic insistence on DEI quotas on the left?

I hope the pendulum can return to the reasonable center at some point, but I don’t see that happening soon.• 

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Daniels is a retired partner of Krieg DeVault LLP, a former U.S. Attorney and assistant U.S. attorney general and former president of the Sagamore Institute. Send comments to [email protected].

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