David Fincher’s ‘Mank’ Would Likely Not Be Nominated for Best Picture Under 2024 Oscar Diversity Quotas

Netflix’s David Fincher helmed Mank scored ten Academy Award nominations on Monday, more than any other movie this awards season. But fast forward three years and the movie’s best picture nomination would look doubtful under new diversity quotas that are set to take effect in 2024.

Mank has committed the cardinal sin of featuring an all-white cast in a story focusing on a heterosexual white male — the real-life Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman), who co-wrote Citizen Kane. That’s a big no-no under the Academy’s new rules, which require all best picture nominees to meet certain cast and storyline quotas for racial, gender, and sexual identities.

Oscar’s convoluted guidelines require at least one lead actor or “significant” supporting actor to come from a minority group, or that at least 30 percent of all actors in minor roles are from at least two minority groups. Failing those options, the movie’s plot must focus on an “underrepresented” group, such as women or the LGBT community.

None of Mank’s main or supporting cast is a minority, and the vast majority of the ensemble cast is white. The movie takes place in the late 30’s and early 40s, during the heyday of the Hollywood studio system when the town’s most powerful executives were all white men.

A movie can still qualify for best picture if its crew meets another set of diversity quotas, which are even more complex.

Mank boasts a few women in behind-the-scenes leadership roles, including producer Cean Chaffin. But the crew lacks racial minorities among its department heads, like editing and cinematography. The below-the-line team also appears to fall short of the required 30 percent minority representation, based on publicly available crew lists that are incomplete.

Netflix, which financed and distributed Mank, hasn’t made the movie’s complete crew list publicly available and the company didn’t respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment.

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The Academy gives studios a way to bypass these quotas by allowing them to count apprenticeships and internships geared toward “underrepresented groups.” Studios can also make up for a movie’s lack of diversity if the executives in its marketing, publicity, or distribution teams include “multiple” women and minorities.

It remains unclear if Netflix meets any of these supplemental requirements. The streamer didn’t reply to Breitbart News’ request for comment about these alternatives.

The Academy’s quotas apply only to the best picture category, so Mank’s nine other nominations would be safe.

Mank’s awards windfall comes as Hollywood is rushing full-throttle to embrace diversity following the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of last year. The“#OscarsSoWhite” social media campaign, which began in 2015, has also pressured the Academy, with claims that too many white people were winning awards due to the Academy’s overwhelmingly white and older voting membership.

Like the studios, award shows are now committing publicly to inclusivity and diversity.

The organizers of the Golden Globes recently pledged to include black voters among its membership, while BAFTA — the British equivalent of the Oscars and Emmys — has imposed its own set of diversity quotas.

When the Academy announced its new quotas last year, it faced a barrage of criticism for appearing to prioritize race and gender over talent and merit. The Academy justified its decision, saying the Oscars need to “reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them.”

This year’s Oscar nominations featured the most diverse set of honorees in the Academy’s history. The best picture nominees include Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari, Nomadland, Sound of Metal, and Promising Young Woman — all of which spotlight minority and female talent.

Mank managed to score the most nominations in part because of the technical categories as well as the near-universal admiration for director David Fincher, who is widely regarded as one of the best filmmakers working today.

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com