Carey Mulligan wants overhaul of Oscars voting system

Carey Mulligan wants the Oscars voting system to be overhauled after the following perceived snubs to female talent, and has accused Academy members of not watching the films they are meant to judge.

The British actress, who was nominated in 2009 for her part in An Education, has been critical of this year’s nominations which saw feted female directors overlooked.

She has questioned whether those with suffrage to decide the highest honour in  showbusiness have even watched the films they spurn, claiming that the power of recent female-led productions would not allow for their exclusion by any other way but ignorance.

Mulligan, 34, said the apparent attitude that these films are not worthy of recognition should be addressed by changing the Oscars voting system.

The Academy reportedly has more than 9,000 members who vote in January, and the most recent ballots have gone against the likes of director Greta Gerwig, who won praise for her lauded adaptation of Little Women.

Hustlers, also in receipt of high praise for the work of  Lorene Scafaria, was passed over by voting Academicians.

"People simply aren't seeing these films because I think if they did they would be moved to vote for them,” said Mulligan at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah,

"The system doesn't work. For a film like Hustlers and a performance like Jennifer Lopez's, (if it) can't get recognised then something's not working.

"So you haven't seen it, you can't have seen it. And you can't see that performance and disregard it, and not think it's worthy of recognition.

"And Greta Gerwig, again producing an incredible film and not getting recognition as a director, there's just something that needs fixing but I'm not the smart person to fix it."

Little Womensparked intense Oscar buzz when it was released to acclaim for its direction, and its multiple leading ladies.  The omission of Gerwig, and any other woman, from the nomination for Best Director this year has prompted criticism of the Academy.

Only five women have been nominated this category in the history of the awards, with The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow the sole female winner.  The Los Angeles Times has previously reported that around two thirds of Academy members who vote on the list are male.

Criticism has been levelled at the organisation after female directors like Lulu Wang for The Farewell, and Marielle Heller for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, who both earned high praise for their work, did not make the cut.

It has been reported that the system used to decide nominations is a process of preferential voting, with all productions failing to be top-five favorites among members struck off, then those with the least first place votes eliminated.  This has been criticised in the past for producing the least disliked-film, rather than the most-loved

In light of criticism directed at the Academy, Mulligan has a greater appreciation of scripts penned by women, and films created by female talents, as she believes the Hollywood system is such that it makes it more of a struggle for these projects to get made.

"I have just had great opportunities offered to me by women, and they have been amazing experiences," she said.

"And I get excited when I get a script from a woman because I know the likelihood is she's had to work that much harder to get to the position of having a film that's been green-lit or have a film that's going out. And so it's probably something pretty interesting."

Mulligan's star in Promising Young Woman as a character seeking revenge against her abuser.