For starters, it’s very clear that the manner in which the Academy members voted, Selma was only watched by 1 in 10 members.
In a series of interviews with these members, carried out by Scott Feinberg, here are four things that revealed how Academy members actually vote:
#1: Hollywood Liberals are Conservative
While most members scoff at the idea of the industry being run by Jews and hippies, they also believe that they shouldn’t vote for a movie [like Selma] just because it has black people in it.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to movies such as American Sniper where they can separate politics from film making.
#2: Films shouldn’t be warm and cuddly
Not only are Academy members not for movies that get people riled up but they don’t enjoy the rough stuff either. Given how one member reacted to Nightcrawler, it’s clear that any movie involving rape, murder, domestic abuse and even psychological advice does not qualify.
#3: Craft, instead of quality, matters
A number of members make positive comments about Boyhood which deals with the subject of a boy becoming a man – a coming-of-age movie. While it does seem emotionally rich enough to deserve an Oscar, most members want it to get one based on ambition alone. And this is because the director, Richard Linklater, took twelve to bring his vision to fruition.
#4: Don’t Watch All the Best Picture Films
In digging up a few stats, it was revealed that both Selma, Whiplash and The Theory of Everything was missed by 7-10% of Academy voters. Of course, the most-seen flick was Birdman with only 2% of voters missing this one. Come to think of it: if the voters themselves miss the biggest critical hits of the year, this doesn’t help movies in short film and foreign categories. By the way, the voters are personally sent all the Best Picture films by DVD.