Screenwriter and director Paul Schrader took aim at the Oscars’ “scramble to be woke” in a Facebook post Monday, alleging the Academy’s changes have made the ceremony “mean less each year.”
“Diversifying membership, recalibrating how votes are counted, these changes have transformed the Hollywood Oscars to the International Oscars,” he wrote, calling out changes that have led to more international voters.
“I rather like the provincial origins of the Oscars: Hollywood coming together to celebrate its own. Most film-making nations–Britain, France, Germany–have their national awards; the festivals have their awards… The Oscars mean less each year. The reasons for this are clear: the need for revenue compounded by the debt carried by the museum [the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures] and lowering film revenues and the scramble to be woke,” he continued later.
