With the 97th Academy Awards set to take place this Sunday at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, some Oscar voters and industry insiders are expressing [1] concerns about the state of the awards show.
According to author and podcaster Raymond Arroyo, many in Hollywood feel that the Oscars have lost touch with mainstream audiences, as smaller, lesser-known films have been nominated for Best Picture over major box office hits due to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements.
This year’s Best Picture nominees include Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist, and Anora, alongside Wicked, The Complete Unknown, and Dune: Part Two.
Arroyo told Fox News Digital that dissatisfaction among the 9,945 eligible Oscar voters is growing, as they believe too many restrictions have been placed on which films can qualify.
“One of these Oscar winners pointed out to me, he said, ‘You know, my film probably wouldn’t qualify for an Oscar now because there’s so many boxes you have to check,’ many of them DEI-related,” Arroyo stated.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first introduced “representation and inclusion standards” at last year’s ceremony.
Under the new rules, a film must meet at least two out of four diversity criteria to qualify for Best Picture.
These categories focus on increasing representation of underrepresented groups, including racial and ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Some Oscar voters are so frustrated with this year’s nominees that they have chosen not to participate in the voting process.
“So many Oscar voters have told me the Oscars jumped the shark. They feel this is the end of Oscars in some ways,” Arroyo said.
He explained that the requirements have excluded films that fail to meet diversity quotas, limiting the pool of potential nominees.
“You have to have so many nontraditional casting here and so many non-white people working on this part of the film,” Arroyo stated.
“So it’s an interesting thing that we’re seeing that I think is disqualifying to a lot of films that we’ll never hear of at the Oscars, because they just couldn’t check those boxes.”
Arroyo added that those who did participate in voting have been criticized by Hollywood insiders as being “out of touch” with the audience.
“They are not taking into account popular tastes when making these choices,” Arroyo said.
“And you have a group of people acting in isolation from their audience, which is a huge problem. When you claim to speak as the cultural mouthpiece and center of the country, it’s a huge problem. And I think many people in Hollywood are acknowledging it and realize maybe they’re out of touch, and maybe the Oscars aren’t what they used to be.”
Arroyo pointed out that if the Academy wanted to nominate films that resonated with the general public, they would have included Deadpool & Wolverine, which was the second-highest-grossing film of 2024, earning more than $1.3 billion.
“Wicked’s really the only movie that’s been a box office success that’s nominated for best picture. All these other films, they’re small arthouse movies at best,” he said.
The impact of these nominations on the Oscars’ ratings remains to be seen.
The 2024 ceremony drew 19.5 million viewers, a slight four percent increase from the previous year, according to Variety. However, Arroyo suggested that this year’s show could see a decline if the nominees fail to engage the wider audience.
“They’ll bump up and down, depending if there’s a big movie that year. But this year you get the feeling, aside from Wicked, there was really nothing that captured the zeitgeist or that people were really inspired by or moved by or even went in droves to,” he said.
“I’m not sure if it has that same power any longer, given the rules, given the times, and given the isolation that the Academy works in.”
Arroyo suggested that the Oscars must change to stay relevant, saying he hopes the Academy will “broaden” its scope and “become a little more democratic” in its approach to film selection, allowing audiences to have a greater voice.
In addition to the concerns about nominations, controversy has surrounded Emilia Pérez, a film nominated for 13 Oscars.
One of its stars, Karla Sofía Gascón, became the first transgender person to receive an Academy Award nomination.
However, Gascón has faced backlash in recent weeks after racist and Islamophobic tweets from her X account were uncovered.
She skipped the Oscars nominee dinner on Tuesday night, where A-list stars such as Wicked nominees Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Demi Moore, Timothée Chalamet, and Sebastian Stan gathered for a group photo.
Despite avoiding public appearances, a source told People that Gascón still intends to attend the ceremony on Sunday.
Gascón’s controversial past includes posts criticizing George Floyd and making anti-Muslim remarks.
After her tweets resurfaced, she deleted her account but later gave interviews offering vague apologies while denying that her comments were racist.
The scandal has raised questions about the future of Emilia Pérez at the Oscars and whether the film’s success will be affected by the backlash surrounding Gascón.
As the Academy prepares for Sunday’s ceremony, questions remain about the direction of the Oscars, the impact of DEI requirements, and whether the awards show still holds cultural significance for mainstream audiences.