Five men that are banned indefinitely from the Oscars
In recent times, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has begun to take its code of conduct more seriously. Of course, we all know that Will Smith was banned from attending Academy events for ten years after slapping Chris Rock. But how about the short list of those who have been banned from the Oscars indefinitely?
Of course, the most notorious film producer banned by the Oscars is the convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. He was expelled from the ceremony in 2017 when a swathe of allegations of sexual assault came against him. The Academy subsequently denounced Weinstein and called him “repugnant, abhorrent, and antithetical to the high standards of the Academy and the creative community it represents”.
Bill Cosby was also banned by the Academy in 2018 “in accordance with the organization’s standards of conduct”. Cosby had been convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting the basketball player Andrea Constand. Not only was Cosby banned from the Oscars, but he also lost his honorary degree from Yale University.
At the same time as Cosby’s expulsion, the director Roman Polanski was also banned from attending the Oscars. Polanski had been on the run since he fled the United States to France in 1978, awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. However, Polanski has not had his award for Best Director taken away from him. Discussing his run from the authorities, Polanski said: “As far as what I did: it’s over. I pleaded guilty. I went to jail. I came back to the United States to do it, people forget about that, or don’t even know. I then was locked up here [in Zurich]. So, in sum, I did about four or five times more than what was promised to me.”
Moving on, Adam Kimmel is a cinematographer known for his work on Lars and the Real Girl and Capote. He was expelled from the Academy and told never to attend an Oscars ceremony in 2021 when it emerged that he had previously been arrested on charges of assaulting two minors. Kimmel is another name whose actions have been his undoing. However, the first person in the film industry to be banned from the Oscars was Carmine Caridi. In 2004, it came to light that he had been distributing pirated copies of film screeners intended solely for use by Academy Members for voting purposes. When the screener copies arrived on the internet (evident that they were Caridi’s copies), he was booted from the Academy.
Five men banned by the Oscars:
- Harvey Weinstein
- Bill Cosby
- Roman Polanski
- Adam Kimmel
- Carmine Caridi
