Inclusivity at the Oscars

Unpacking the controversy surrounding race and the Oscars

In 2015, #OscarSoWhite went viral on social media, highlighting the disproportionately low number of nominees of color compared to their white colleagues. Data also shows divisions when it comes to age, gender, and nationality.

Oscar voters are now required to watch all movies in a category before voting

This rule, introduced for the 2026 Academy Awards, is based on the honor system. A handful of voters afterwards admitted to not watching all the films in their category.

New Oscar categories continue to be added

We all know about best picture and best actress, but the Academy Awards also honor people in lesser-known Hollywood roles, such as sound mixers and production designers. In 2026, for the first time in more than two decades, a new category will be added: an Oscar for achievement in casting.

The Oscars now prohibit AI-generated acting and writing

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added language to its rules and eligibility requirements stating that only roles "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" and screenplays "human-authored" would be eligible for awards.

Films must meet a long list of requirements to be considered for an Oscar

Each nominating category has slightly different rules. For best picture, the film must have run for at least a week in one of six specified US cities; for best original screenplay, the nominee must provide a copy of their shooting script.

Oscar snubs and losses can generate controversy

Comedian Bruce Vilanch's podcast "The Oscars: What Were They Thinking?" takes listeners behind the scenes at the Academy Awards to get the inside scoop on everything from the nominating process to the celebrity spats backstage. For example, "This One Hurts!" is about the 2010 Oscars battle for best picture between "The Hurt Locker" (directed by Kathryn Bigelow) and "Avatar" (directed by James Cameron, her ex-husband).

Two individuals are credited with making the Oscars red carpet a destination for fashion

Much like the Met Gala, fashion is now an inextricable part of the Academy Awards. But it wasn't always that way. In the 1950s and '60s, costume designer Edith Head was responsible for making sure the stars looked their best on television. In the 1990s, Fred Hayman brought luxury back to the stage after the excess of the 1970s and 1980s. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Who gets thanked the most in Oscar speeches?

This resource analyzes nearly 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches. It shows the average number of words spoken, the themes discussed, and how these trends have changed over the years. Scroll through the results and see if Harvey Weinstein was thanked more often than God in past years.

Plenty of groundbreaking films never won an Oscar

The Academy Awards may look to celebrate the best films in a given year, but they sometimes miss the mark. This list breaks down 15 important movies that didn't win a single Oscar, including early classics like "Frankenstein" and "Double Indemnity," New Hollywood landmarks like "Easy Rider" and "Taxi Driver," and pop culture phenoms like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Reservoir Dogs."

In 2021, the James Beard Awards began focusing on 'equity and sustainability'

Following accusations that the awards’ judges and winners were overwhelmingly white and male, the foundation conducted a 2021 audit focused on “equity and sustainability”; subsequent awards have been notably more diverse.

A brief history of Cannes controversies

Cannes is one of the most prestigious festivals in the world, but that hasn’t shielded it from controversies, including inflammatory statements, political protests, and booing audiences.

Women work harder for Pulitzers

While the Pulitzers have never been segregated by gender, a 2012 study by the University of Missouri found female winners required significantly more elite credentials—Ivy League degrees, experience at top newspapers, and the like—than their male counterparts. Similar credentials are also overrepresented in the category of international reporting, suggesting the award favors those with more privileged upbringings.

Examining golf's problems with race

In 1961, the PGA removed the "Caucasian-only" membership clause, marking the last major professional sports organization to desegregate. But unlike other sports, golf didn't see an influx of Black players following the change. This article from The Ringer's Lex Pryor examines golf's complicated history with race and gender, showing both the progress made and the challenges that remain.

Evaluating film studio A24's cult status since achieving mainstream success

In its quick ascent to the upper echelons of cinema, A24 has achieved a rare place in pop culture of both cult status and financial success. One critic asks whether it can sustain such a position in this fascinating, quick piece.

The duties and importance of Grammy expert panels have shifted over the years

The anonymous expert panels were first introduced into the Grammys voting process in the '90s to counteract claims that the awards weren't "with it" anymore—basically, that they were biased toward more traditional music acts. Of course, that was also the argument for disbanding some of them in 2022: Many people thought the panels were introducing their own bias into the nominations. Now, they exist mainly to ensure genre nominations are correctly categorized. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The economic impact of the Hollywood strikes

The 2023 strikes in Hollywood resulted in significant wins for the WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA unions. Workers were promised to receive bonuses that allowed them to benefit from high-performing streaming shows and films. This article shares how the rewards have been distributed to union members since their implementation. See a breakdown of the bonuses for each union, how the industry has improved, and the challenges some members still face.

'Special effects' have evolved alongside Hollywood

Since the early days of moviemaking, directors have played with perspective to create incredible effects on the screen. From Buster Keaton to contemporary CGI, this 30-minute documentary details the amazing evolution of Hollywood's special effects.

Hollywood movies' ratings are controlled by the Motion Picture Association

The board, established by a board of parents, has provided ratings (like G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17) for Hollywood films since 1968. Although the MPA provides specific criteria for rating films, many of the characteristics (such as "snippets of language that go beyond polite conversation") are subjective.

Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign sparked conversations about beauty standards in media

For the 20-year anniversary of the campaign in 2024, Dove conducted a brand-commissioned study to gauge how perceptions of beauty standards have shifted since its launch. While 81% of US women thought “the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve” in 2004, the share had shrunk to 69% in 2024. Watch the ad here.

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

Title IX compliance relies on a three-part test

In 1979, the Office for Civil Rights issued Title IX’s three-part test to evaluate whether schools offer nondiscriminatory athletic opportunities: proportionate participation, program expansion, or meeting women’s interests. The guidelines offer flexibility without quotas and include specific factors for each item.

Learn how Hollywood tries to get mental health portrayals right

"Entertainment is always the first priority," the director of medical research for "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" explained in this Newsweek article. But, medical consultants and dedicated groups like the University of Southern California's Hollywood, Health, and Society program, can help inform shows' characters, actions, and sensitivities on subjects like mental illness.

How demographics influence voter turnout and elections

This article breaks down demographic data to show what it means for American elections. According to the latest US Census, the US is growing increasingly diverse. As the population becomes more diverse, so does the electorate. Analyzing the...

Understanding the causes, effects, and prevalence of algorithmic bias

Found in search engines, hiring and college admissions tools, facial recognition systems, and other software, algorithms act on the rules they are programmed with, which may be authored by individuals unaware of their own biases. Algorithms based on limited, incomplete, or inaccurate data are more likely to inherit and propagate existing biases.

Disney’s IP problem, according to industry experts

Disney seems to be an unstoppable force in the entertainment industry, but after an unprecedented high point in 2019, the company began losing money. In this podcast, two industry veterans discuss what they see as Disney's existential problems: an overreliance on preexisting material and an inability to innovate as it once did.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.