Actor Richard Dreyfuss tore into the diversity requirements for Best Picture nominations.
"They make me vomit," he said during a PBS interview when asked about the new "Inclusion Standards" for the Academy Awards that require movies to meet diversity quotas to be considered for the prestigious "Best Picture" award.
"I’m sorry, I don’t think that there's a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that," Dreyfuss said.
"Do we not know that art is art?" he said. "It’s so thoughtless and treating people like children."
Movies must meet two of four new criteria to be considered for nominations in the upcoming Academy Awards, Variety reported:
The four new diversity and inclusion standards were first announced in 2020; they will be instituted for the upcoming 2024 Academy Awards, with two of the four needing to be fulfilled for a valid submission for best picture.
The Academy's requirements push films to include underrepresented groups, which include women, minorities, and the disabled, in areas including the cast, storyline, and production and publicity staff.