The Ridiculous Reason ‘Reagan’ Movie Could Not Even Be Nominated for Best Picture

The film “Reagan” starring Dennis Quaid surprised industry watchers at the box office last fall when it took the No. 3 spot over Labor Day Weekend.

The placement was behind the two tent pole films of Marvel’s “Deadpool and Wolverine” and 20th Century’s “Alien: Romulus.”

Not bad for a little $25 million independent flick.

Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore rating, the same rating as “Deadpool and Wolverine,” and higher than “Alien: Romulus” with a “B+.”

Further, 98 percent of moviegoers positively rated “Reagan” on Rotten Tomatoes.

So the people who saw it loved it.

But despite the strong audience response, “Reagan” was not even eligible to be considered for the Academy Awards “Best Picture” category.

Why? DEI, of course. Hollywood hasn’t gotten the memo that diversity is out and merit is in.

In order for movies to be considered for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures, they must meet certain diversity standards. The requirements include having people of “underrepresented” ethnic groups, women, LGBT, and other backgrounds in significant roles in the movie.

“Reagan” is of course about a white guy of Irish descent from the Midwest who rises from humble beginnings to become the president of the United States.

Besides Quaid’s portrayal of Ronald Reagan, the two other main roles in the film are Nancy Reagan, played by Penelope Ann Miller, and Viktor Petrovich, played by Jon Voight. All three are white, therefore the diversity requirement is not met.

The Academy provides some other ways to reach the DEI threshold based on people who work on the film but do not appear on the screen, such as the director, the writer, the costume designer, or the marketing team.

“Reagan” did not meet those alternative criteria either, so it was ineligible for “Best Picture.”

Ed Feulner — the former president of the Heritage Foundation and a domestic policy adviser to President Reagan — pointed out how silly the Academy’s policy is.

“Consider some past Best Picture winners that would be disqualified today. 1970’s ‘Patton,’ for one. Sure, it would be historically inaccurate to make the players in this World War II film a multigender, rainbow-colored group, but good luck capturing the top prize at the Oscars otherwise,” he wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Times.

Feulner also pointed to other past Best Picture winners like 1972’s “The Godfather” (about an Italian mob family) and 1984’s “Amadeus” (about 18th-century Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) that wouldn’t make the DEI cut either.

Nor would “Rocky,” “Braveheart,” or “The Sound of Music.”

One irony about the whole situation is that Reagan was an actor who worked during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild, twice. And yet, a movie about his life is ineligible to even be considered by the Academy.

Reagan would likely shrug it off, saying of the leftist DEI Hollywood policy, “Well, there they go again.”

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