Mechanic lambastes, leaves academy
The movie producer criticized its approach on harassment issues, diversity and more.
Producer Bill Mechanic quit the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors after writing an incendiary resignation letter blasting academy leadership for creating a “fractured environment” and accusing them of acting like “moral police” in dealing with sexual harassment issues.
Mechanic, a former 20th Century Fox executive, derided academy leaders for making “reactive rather than considered” decisions about diversity within the organization and its stance on sexual misconduct within the industry.
“I haven’t had any real impact, so now it’s time to leave,” Mechanic wrote in a private letter to the academy dated April 12 and published Tuesday by the Hollywood Reporter and Variety. “I feel I have failed the organization. I feel we have failed the organization.”
Warner Bros. executive Dan Fellman will replace Mechanic on the academy board’s executive branch. The academy did not respond to Mechanic’s letter other than releasing a statement thanking him for five years of service on the board.
In his letter, Mechanic faulted the academy for an Oscars telecast that’s “long and boring,” criticized what he called the stagnation of the forthcoming Academy Museum and skewered the organization for how it handled misconduct allegations following the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
Addressing academy President John Bailey, who was recently cleared of harassment allegations, Mechanic described a litany of issues facing the organization’s leaders.
“You can’t hide the drainage of employees, the cataclysmic decline in the Oscar ratings, the fact that no popular film has won in over a decade; that we decided to play Moral Police and most probably someone inside the Academy leaked confidential information in order to compromise the President; that the Board doesn’t feel their voice is being heard with regard to the [Academy] Museum; that we have allowed the Academy to be blamed for things way beyond our control and then try to do things which are not in our purview (sexual harassment, discrimination in the Industry).”
Mechanic, who was nominated for a best picture Oscar for 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge” and once produced the Oscars telecast, said that the academy “settled on numeric answers to the problem of inclusion” without really recognizing the problem is industry-wide.
He also said the Oscars show has failed to move into the modern age, one with increased competition from an abundance of other award shows.
“We have kept to the same number of awards, which inherently means a long and boring show, and over the past decade, we have nominated so many smaller independent films that the Oscars feel like they should be handed out in a tent,” Mechanic said, apparently referencing the Independent Spirit Awards, which take place in a tent on the beach. “Big is not inherently bad, and small is not inherently good.”
Fellman, Mechanic’s replacement, is a veteran Warner Bros. executive. He will serve the remainder of Mechanic’s term, which ends on June 30, 2019. Fellman served on the board from 2014 to 2017.
nardine.saad@latimes.com Twitter: @NardineSaad