Who decides Oscar winners? White men over 60

Well, that's not right, you're saying; that's just not fair -- and with such unfairness you've got to be very brave in the land of the free if you're a film director. To which the Academy could answer, well, a lot of those people ended up with honorary Oscars, when they were past the mean age of the membership. And many of them were nominated several times for directing. After all, it is an honor to be nominated, isn't it?

I suppose so, but then I have to ask you another question: what do these movies have in common? "The Shop Around the Corner;" "His Girl Friday;" "The Lady Eve;" "Shanghai Express;" "Rear Window;" "The Night of the Hunter;" "Touch of Evil;" "Some Like It Hot;" "Mulholland Dr.;" "Wanda;" "Magnolia;" "In the Cut;" "A Separation." My answer would be (and this is opinion) that they are all very good films, yet not one of them was nominated for Best Picture.

Only one film in that list is "foreign," by which I mean that it came from outside the United States. They were American pictures in an age of such hollow confidence that the rest of the world could fight over the bone of best foreign picture. But you knew not to trust elderly, white, male clubs a long time ago. Didn't you?

David Thomson is the author of "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film" and "The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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[Rafterman11]

"But consider: what do the following people have in common? Preston Sturges; Alfred Hitchcock; Fritz Lang; Stanley Kubrick; David Lynch; Jane Campion; Howard Hawks; King Vidor; Ernst Lubitsch; Madonna; Orson Welles; Jean Renoir; Carol Reed; Barbara Loden; Michael Powell; Spike Lee; Akira Kurosawa; Kenji Mizoguchi; Robert Altman; Leni Riefenstahl, and Charles Chaplin. They are all film directors, and none of them ever won an Oscar for directing."

Madonna? Really?

And Leni Riefenstahl, while talented, its probably a good thing for the integrity of the Academy that Hitler's favorite director didn't win an Oscar.

[Mike_in_USA]

So this is basically a politically correct hit piece? Or,who cares about hollyweird people patting themselves on the back and telling each other how good they are? Don't they have enough sycophants already?

[joe1022joe]

The Oscars is merely a movie industry booster system, nothing more.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not an "academy" in any sense that any rational person would imagine. It's just a publicity organization.

[johnnyaction]

Crusty old leftist freaks decide everything in Hollywood, this includes the union goons and politicians who ***** children out as day laborers in the industry. Get the headline right, CBS.

[bwlewis1964]

Old White males run this country from top to bottom, why
not the Oscar's.

[rwsmith29456]

Well, old white guy know more than anybody else, except maybe teenagers.

[wlhoppers]

Don't white men over 60 decide most everything that's unimportant?

[pbaird2]

Race, age and gender does not appear to be an historical barrier to winners. Many films have won which depicted mostly ethnic, young and/or female actors and/or subject matter. The members of the Academy are artists who mostly do not consider race, age or gender and appreciate the effort of the art. Those who fail to win too often claim bias as the rationale. Generally, the films which do win I find bland and uninteresting. Matters of taste.

[broswall]

For all "old white men over 60"
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

[rainbowroosie]

Who cares?? Hollywood makes action films and agenda driven drivel...