Oscars 2014: 5 Things In Defense Of The Academy Awards

3. It's A Diverse Range Of Voters

To be fair, the Academy has gotten some criticism for its lack of diversity, as far as ethnics and gender go, and I'm certainly not going to defend that. What I am willing to defend is how very few of the voters are former Oscar winners or nominees. Some people have criticized this, though I fail to see why. Think about it, if most (or all) the voters were former winners, then the ceremony would become an endless cycle of slapping itself on the back. Of course, there's plenty of this as it is, but at least the way we have it now there's the occasional surprise nomination. Really, how many of us expected to see Inception as a Best Picture nominee? Or District 9 for crying out loud? (sure, there were no such nominations for The Dark Knight, but I can't absolve them of all their sins)