Academy Awards Best Picture - Know These New Rules Before You Start Production

DLD said:
Nothing like the self-destruction of the entire industry.

Well, we'll still have the CGI.

And live sports.
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Dude. These benchmarks are not terribly difficult to meet

B3. Overall crew composition
At least 30% of the film’s crew is from the following underrepresented groups:
• Women
• Racial or ethnic group
• LGBTQ+
• People with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing
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As long as your crew is less than 75% straight white men, you're fine
 
'Dude. These benchmarks are not terribly difficult to meet'

I don't know about you - but the idea of having to write an original screenplay to any checklist - seems like trouble to me.



A3. Main storyline/subject matter

The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s).
• Women
• Racial or ethnic group
• LGBTQ+
• People with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing
 
kevin baggott said:
'Dude. These benchmarks are not terribly difficult to meet'

I don't know about you - but the idea of having to write an original screenplay to any checklist - seems like trouble to me.



A3. Main storyline/subject matter

The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s).
• Women
• Racial or ethnic group
• LGBTQ+
• People with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing
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You only have to qualify in 2 out of 4 areas. If you want to make a film about straight white dudes, just don't crew it with all straight white dudes

This is just about saying what the academy supports and represents. You can still make and market whatever movies you like. And the percentages discussed are so low that it really is just about breaking up homogeneous productions. I mean, in this day and age you would almost have to go out of your way not to meet these guidelines. Heck, you could still all be white if a few of you are gay. Obviously, there are always problems with formulating and implementing a scheme like this. But all in all, it's a big nothingburger.
 
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I missed '2 out of 4' My bad. Having grown up and spent 60 years in NYC I don't even know what 'all white and all straight' even look likes. I just don't want a list of boxes I have to check off for anything creative - which is also why I was always doing indy work. Long live Hollywood!
 
ahalpert said:
Dude. These benchmarks are not terribly difficult to meet


As long as your crew is less than 75% straight white men, you're fine
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It's not about any given movie. It's about making 30%-50% of the potential audience for all movies/TV shows/streaming services mad at the whole industry. It's like Disney warring with De Santis. Even if it had some laws on its side, you don't attack a potential presidential nominee on at best a divisive issue. You negotiate and make peace without riling anyone up. Because it's very easy to lose a business that receives only discretionary income and that's what film, theater, theme parks and cruise lines are. You'd think Iger would know this.

PS. Side note, there are "plans" to build a $1B amusement park in Miami's suburbs. If ever approved and finished, it'd aim to destroy the whole of Disney's Florida branches
 
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DLD said:
It's not about any given movie. It's about making 30%-50% of the potential audience for all movies/TV shows/streaming services mad at the whole industry. It's like Disney warring with De Santis. Even if it had some laws on its side, you don't attack a potential presidential nominee on at best a divisive issue. You negotiate and make peace without riling anyone up. Because it's very easy to lose a business that receives only discretionary income and that's what film, theater, theme parks and cruise lines are. You'd think Iger would know this.

PS. Side note, there are "plans" to build a $1B amusement park in Miami's suburbs. If ever approved and finished, it'd aim to destroy the whole of Disney's Florida branches
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Yeah, it's awful that Disney took a principled stance against a bigoted bill. What could they have been thinking.

It's similarly awful that the Academy is coming out in opposition to 75%+ straight white male productions.

I doubt there has been a best picture nominee for many years that would have violated these guidelines. The proposal seems more like virtue signaling aimed at Gen Z, who is only 50% white. If the movie business can't cultivate a new generation of film lovers, it will die with the Boomers.

The reaction you're talking about - riling up politically opposed folks - was how I felt when Star Trek Discovery cast Stacy Abrams as President of United Earth. She's not even an actor. They're going out of their way to honor an active politician. (Granted, she was probably a hero to black ladies and the show was the first Trek series to have a black lady captain.) But basically it seemed like a partisan poison pill that could turn away an otherwise neutral audience segment.

I really don't think Disney/academy is the same. They're not taking an explicitly partisan stance. They're advocating issues. If what they're advocating offends you, I think that's a pretty darn self-centered reaction.
 
ahalpert said:
Yeah, it's awful that Disney took a principled stance against a bigoted bill. What could they have been thinking.
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Disney Corp. is a commercial entity. If it goes titts up - as it will - it won't do anything good or bad for anyone. It will simply disappear, as many a business before it.

PS. I don't need to mention that Florida isn't a woke state. DeSantis even won Miami-Dade by 11%, a county that went HRC by 24% in 2016. If Disney wants to move its theme parks to Manhattan or the South Side of Chicago, it's welcome to do so.
 
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DLD said:
Disney Corp. is a commercial entity. If it goes titts up - as it will - it won't do anything good or bad for anyone. It will simply disappear, as many a business before it.

PS. I don't need to mention that Florida isn't a woke state. DeSantis even won Miami-Dade by 11%, a county that went HRC by 24% in 2016. If Disney wants to move its theme parks to Manhattan or the South Side of Chicago, it's welcome to do so.
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"Oh well, alright, let's all sell our souls and work for Satan because it's more convenient that way." - American Beauty

It's hard to find centralized demographics statistics on Disney World visitors but it looks like about 20% International and among American visitors only a quarter are from Florida. So, 20% total are from Florida and let's say that at most 2/3 of Florida were anti-woke then that would be 14% of Park visitors who were anti-woke. But it gets worse because there's a strong correlation with age and party affiliation in Florida so fact is that most of the anti-woke folks don't have kids to bring to the park anymore and they're probably not riding roller coasters free time either. Democrats won the 18-29 demographic in the DeSantis election even though their turnout was relatively low compared to Republicans and they roughly tied among 30 to 44 year olds. Now, if their political stance impacted Park attendance by even 5% it would be a big deal but theryre certainly not relying on Florida conservatives for the bulk of their business there. Seems to me like the bigger deal for them is special treatment they get from the state which deSantis wants to remove never mind the constant crowing from Republicans about the rights of business to make political speech or evils of government retaliation against them.
 
ahalpert said:
"Oh well, alright, let's all sell our souls and work for Satan because it's more convenient that way." - American Beauty
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You're very diligent in finding your personal bias confirmations.

Perhaps, you should spend 10-20% of that time seeking an alternative viewpoint.
 
DLD said:
You're very diligent in finding your personal bias confirmations.

Perhaps, you should spend 10-20% of that time seeking an alternative viewpoint.
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This is not a personal bias confirmation, it's a business analysis. And I'm not saying that DeSantis is Satan, I'm just saying that always doing whatever is best for business may sometimes clash with one's principles.
 
ahalpert said:
This is not a personal bias confirmation, it's a business analysis. And I'm not saying that DeSantis is Satan, I'm just saying that always doing whatever is best for business may sometimes clash with one's principles.
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The business of politicians is not making money but making votes, i.e., playing to their base. And to borrow a line from a politician more accomplish on the national stage, "the business of America is business". Florida may lose some PC employers but Disney is the one that's really bleeding money in 2023. Florida is experiencing a record amount of tourism, while Disney - an international leisure and recreation company - is suffering in its economic outlook. Meanwhile California is heading in the opposite direction. As is Disney.
 
DLD said:
The business of politicians is not making money but making votes, i.e., playing to their base. And to borrow a line from a politician more accomplish on the national stage, "the business of America is business". Florida may lose some PC employers but Disney is the one that's really bleeding money in 2023. Florida is experiencing a record amount of tourism, while Disney - an international leisure and recreation company - is suffering in its economic outlook. Meanwhile California is heading in the opposite direction. As is Disney.
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I waa principally interested in Disney's political stance not as a business move. I mean, by your logic we should have done nothing when Russia invaded Ukraine. We're blowing tons of money on it, damaging our trade relationships, and weighing on the global economy with sanctions, etc.

Disney Parks revenue increased 17% in the most recent quarter. It's their linear TV and streaming segments that are facing headwinds. You're just aggressively wrong.

  • Disney's streaming losses narrowed during the fiscal second quarter, as price increases helped offset the loss of subscribers at Disney+.
  • The company posted revenue and profit in line with Wall Street's projections.
  • Disney reported significant growth at its theme parks during its second fiscal quarter. However, its linear TV unit struggled.
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