Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it is going to push back the latest edition of the Oscars to April 2021. The deadline for the eligibility was changed accordingly and so were other related rules regarding the nominations. This caused a lot of ripples across the entertainment industry and now it is getting ready for a new round of changes due to the Academy’s new set of rules for entering the Best Picture category.

As a part of its Academy Aperture initiative, the Academy announced new representation and inclusion standards “to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience”. Academy President David Rubin and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said,

“The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them. The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality. We believe these inclusion standards will be a catalyst for long-lasting, essential change in our industry.”

The standards are broken into three categories: on-screen representation, themes and narratives, creative leadership and project team, industry access and opportunities, and audience development.

Change starts now. We’ve announced new representation and inclusion standards for Best Picture eligibility, beginning with the 96th #Oscars. Read more here: https://t.co/qdxtlZIVKb pic.twitter.com/hR6c2jb5LM

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) September 9, 2020

For Standard A, at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors need to be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group i..e Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African American, etc. At least 30 per cent of all actors in secondary and more minor roles in a general ensemble cast need to from at least two of the follow underrepresented groups: women, racial or ethnic group, LGBTQ+, people with cognitive or physical disabilities. In addition to that, the main storyline/subject matter has to focus on underrepresented groups. Standard B, C, and D have similar breakdowns and you can read about it by clicking here.

For now, these norms are limited to the Best Picture category only. According to the Academy, films in categories like Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, and International Feature Film that have been submitted for Best Picture/General Entry will be addressed separately. And as for how big of an impact these changes are going to have, in terms of how movies are made and then judged, is something that we’ve to wait and watch.

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Cover image courtesy: Oscars/YouTube