The 96the The Oscars cycle is upon us, and with it something new: the mandatory standards of representation and inclusion that require filmmakers and/or their storylines and/or their distributors to adhere to expanded race, sex, and disability policies.
Don’t fool yourself with the “everyone qualifies” idea that has been floating around since the standards were announced a few years ago. These rules are meant to change the movie business. If you don’t believe it, take a few minutes to browse the long list of compliance resources now posted on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website at raise.oscars.org/resources/standards.
Clearly, academia is not just about overseeing diversity and inclusion. It wants to help you make your films the “right” way, or at least put you in touch with hundreds of people who are doing just that.
At this point, the standard Academy resource list contains 20 entities, with more to come. Some are non-profit organizations, others are commercial companies. The list, the website says, was “compiled and reviewed” by the Academy, and each resource provides “robust, relevant and actionable tools to help a filmmaker, production, studio or distributor set standards.” to fulfill and facilitate progress.
“Progress,” though not usually said out loud, means a reduction in the percentage of able-bodied, straight, white men involved in film production or storytelling. Other demographics are somehow benefited by the standards and supported by the growing list of resource companies and organizations.
And it’s an impressive list, offering an approach to recruitment and development that would have been shockingly unfamiliar to a producer in the 1990s, when films were built around brainstorming, pocket decisions, trips to the favor bench, backdoor deals and sometimes artful audience test.
By the lights of academia, a script hunt now begins not with lunch with Power Agents, but with a visit to Black List, “a unique database in the world that efficiently identifies and celebrates great writing for those who most in need.” Or, more specifically on the parallel UK blacklist, “to obtain information about the exciting work of UK-based black storytellers”.
With your script meeting standards – the Academy List handily explains which standards each company or organization will help you meet – you can start creating your inclusion-friendly film.
When you need interns – and who doesn’t love cheap labor? – The Academy can provide them itself through the diversity-focused Academy Gold programme, and it will go a long way towards overcoming Standard C, which requires you to develop skills for underrepresented groups. That, or you could try the Group Effort initiative, which the Academy website notes can help you meet the same standard with “people of color, LGBQ+, people with disabilities, former foster and homeless youth, and people formerly in the prison was.”
No problem for the rest of the staff. You can meet standards B and D, which require a diverse creative and marketing/sales team, by visiting the ARRAY Crew database, which was “created by filmmaker Ava DuVernay and led by an all-female executive team,” they say at the Oscars. website. Elsewhere, the site mentions that DuVernay sits on the Academy’s board. But she is not the only reported source of women and people of color meeting the standards. Staff Me Up, which costs just $149.99 a year for a premium membership — about the same as IMDbPro — reportedly lists 120,000 crew members who “identified themselves as underrepresented,” presumably to add to a producer’s burden that struggles with The Academy’s RAISE platform, a complex identity data entry portal that all Oscar films must now go through. Another resource for staff could be Free the Work, a 501c3 organization that, as the listing says, “allows your production team to identify outside of an inhumane and limited range of options, allowing them to see themselves as feel themselves.”
Whatever that means, it can help with Standard A that requires diversity in your storyline and/or on-screen talent.
Do you need music? Go to Donne, Women in Music’s Composers Diversity Collective. Lawyers and publicists? It can come from Diverse Representation, good for Standard C and D. For Animation, Women in Animation. For Asian advice, try CAPE USA; for Native Americans, IllumiNative; for people from the Middle East and North Africa, MENA Arts; for Latinos, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers.
LaVant Consulting, according to the listing, specializes in people with disabilities. Gold House “reshapes public opinion” in favor of Asians and Pacific Islanders (good for Standard A and C). Color of Change Hollywood keeps you updated on the latest activist trends. Women in Film is here to help with all four standards.
And Crewvie, whose own website features an Oscar logo, a gold check and a prominent reference to “Standard ABCD,” according to the Academy, “can streamline the collection and reporting of DEIA analysis to easily apply for RAISE do.”
Fortunately, there is someone to help you because VERHOG is complicated. This identity data portal has been live since 2021, but that’s actually the year Oscar films have to meet the standards for the first time. Previously, the portal was only accessible to those registering a film. But Academy members, we’re told, will be offered a “walk-through” in early May.
It’s time. You might want to check it out. Because the platform and its many industry support groups are designed to transform the way you do business.
Source: Deadline
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
