OSCARS 2024
The list of ‘personas non gratas’ at the 2024 Oscars: everyone who is banned from the Academy Awards
Six people have been blacklisted by the Academy for various reasons. They are banned from attending Academy events. Let’s look at why
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has historically come down hard on artists who violate the law or are found to be in breach of conduct regulations or guilty of “unacceptable and harmful behavior on stage”. The AMPAS Board found Will Smith guilty of the latter at last year’s Oscars ceremony - a flashpoint moment that involving one of the night’s big winners.
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The 55-year-old has received four nominations during his career and picked up his first Oscar for Best Actor in 2022 for his portrayal of Serena and Venus Williams’ father in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic King Richard. His reputation was left in tatters after he launched a shocking on-stage attack on comedian and event host Chris Rock - an act of violence that stunned the viewing public.
Just a few days after the ceremony, Smith was banned from the Oscars and all other Academy events for slapping Rock. A statement released by AMPAS explained that the ceremony had been “overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr Smith exhibit on stage”.
Smith’s shameful actions may have been unlike anything seen previously, but he is not the first person to have been banned from the Oscars ceremony or expelled from all Academy events. Here, we take a look at the six other big names to have been black-listed from the biggest night in Hollywood:
Richard Gere
The Pretty Woman star was one of the biggest film stars of the late 1980s/early 90s but he fell foul of the Academy after denouncing the Chinese government while presenting the Oscar for Best Art Direction at the 1993 ceremony. Gere criticized the “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation there is in China - not only towards their own people but to Tibet as well”. That angered those in power at AMPAS, who reminded him that there is no place for political statements at the Oscars.
While the Academy insists that they don’t tend to ban presenters, Gere has never been invited back in the last 21 years.
Carmine Caridi
The first person to be given a permanent ban from the Academy, Caridi was found to have illegally shared VHS of upcoming, unreleased screener movies with a friend. The promotional screeners (SCRs) were distributed to Academy members specifically for voting purposes and Caridi was investigated by the FBI on civil charges of copyright infringement.
The Godfather actor passed away in 2019 at the age of 85 and remained banned from the Academy until his death.
Bill Cosby
Disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby has won five Primetime Emmy Awards and eight Grammy Awards, but fell from stardom with his arrest and subsequent conviction for sexual assault in 2014.
The Academy issued a lifetime ban to Crosby in 2018, writing in a statement: “The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity.”
Roman Polanski
In the same year as Crosby was expelled, the Academy decided to take the same steps against Roman Polanski. The director had fled the United States after allegations of sexual assault against a minor in 1977 but was able to continue his membership for decades after, even winning the Oscar for Best Director in 2003.
Harvey Weinstein
Another huge name in Hollywood finally exposed in the mid-2010s, Weinstein was at the centre of the #MeToo movement. Weinstein’s conviction on four counts of rape and one of sexual assault brought about his expulsion from the Academy.
In issuing the ban, AMPAS wrote that Weinstein had behaved in a way that was “repugnant, abhorrent, and antithetical to the high standards of the academy and the creative community it represents.”
Adam Kimmel
Before Smith, the most recent removal from the Academy was cinematographer Adam Kimmel. He was a prominent name in Hollywood and had worked with some of the industry’s biggest stars, but two years ago it emerged that he had twice been charged with sexual crimes against underage girls. He was expelled from Academy membership in 2021 for violating the code of conduct.