A female Academy member gave an anonymous interview explaining her votes for the Oscar nominees, as well as addressing some of the Oscar “snubs” that have recently made headlines, most notably Selma.
“First, let me say that I’m tired of all of this talk about ‘snubs’ — I thought for every one of [the snubs] there was a justifiable reason. What no one wants to say out loud is that ‘Selma is a well-crafted movie, but there’s no art to it,'” she said.
Addressing concerns about racism in the Academy, she went on to say, “Yes, most members are white males, but they are not the cast of Deliverance — they had to get into the Academy to begin with, so they’re not cretinous, snaggletoothed hillbillies. When a movie about black people is good, members vote for it. But if the movie isn’t that good, am I supposed to vote for it just because it has black people in it?”
She also noted her annoyance at the Selma cast showing up in “I Can’t Breathe” tee shirt, saying it was “offensive.” She said, “Did they want to be known for making the best movie of the year or for stirring up s***?”
She went on to say that she would be voting for The Imitation Game despite the fact that it has not received much recognition. She explained, “But I’m going to hold my nose and vote for it anyway because when you vote for best picture, what you should try to do is vote for the movie that, years from now, people will still watch and talk about. For some years, it’s like, ‘Huh?! Around the World in 80 Days [the winner for 1956] won best picture? Are you kidding me?’ So I try to vote in a way so that, in 50 years, people aren’t going to go,’Huh?!'”
Read the full interview here.