According to LA Mag the quota plan may destroy the Oscars. It’s a perfect storm with sinking ratings, disappearing stars that have been replaced with social media influencers, and boring broadcasts. Now the quota system could be the final nail in the coffin.

Creativity and greatness no longer determines the outcome according to insiders. The rules have been changed by which films are eligible for Best Picture nominations.

Starting in 2024, producers are demanded to submit a rundown of race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of members of their movie’s cast and crew. If a movie does not have a significant amount people of color or disabled people or gays or lesbians working on the set then that movie will no longer be eligible for an Oscar.

The quota system is not universally accepted in Hollywood circles.

“Critics say it’s invasive, anticreative, opens the door to privacy issues, and is spectacularly unfair to actors and crew members, who may want to keep their sexual orientation or health profiles to themselves, not to mention to producers and directors who have enough to worry about while shooting a movie than to be saddled with the thankless task of tallying up the identity markers of their creative partners”.

“I mean, why aren’t animals in this?” sneers one industry insider. “What if the main character is a horse?”

“The Oscars drew an all-time low of 9.85 million viewers—less than what an episode of The Big Bang Theory used to get. ”

“Aperture 2025 isn’t the only Academy initiative to recently raise eyebrows in Hollywood. In February, Oscar organizers triggered a civil war in Hollywood over a plan to pretape many of the below-the-line categories—film editing, makeup and hairstyling, original score, production design, the short-film selections—and roll edits of those awards into the live broadcast. Predictably, many Academy members (especially film editors, makeup and hairstylists, and production designers) balked at the change, but at least that one was designed to address an actual existential threat to the ceremony: that it’s become so long and boring that huge swaths of the audience have begun tuning out.”