'Taxi Driver' screenwriter Paul Schrader trashes 'woke' Oscars in Facebook post: They 'mean less each year'

Screenwriter and director Paul Schrader took aim at the Oscars' "scramble to be woke" in a Facebook post Monday, alleging the Academy's changes have made the ceremony "mean less each year."

"Diversifying membership, recalibrating how votes are counted, these changes have transformed the Hollywood Oscars to the International Oscars," he wrote, calling out changes that have led to more international voters. 

"I rather like the provincial origins of the Oscars: Hollywood coming together to celebrate its own. Most film-making nations--Britain, France, Germany--have their national awards; the festivals have their awards…  The Oscars mean less each year. The reasons for this are clear: the need for revenue compounded by the debt carried by the museum [the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures] and lowering film revenues and the scramble to be woke," he continued later. 

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Paul Schrader attends the 19th Marrakech International Film Festival - Day Five on November 15, 2022, in Marrakech, Morocco.  (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

The 76-year-old personality, best known for screenwriting films like "Taxi Driver" and the Oscar-nominated 2017 flick "First Reformed," sounded off on the heels of Sunday night's 95th Academy Awards, which were among the lowest-rated in history.

In the comments, however, respondents took the post as a hit at Best Picture winner "Everything Everywhere All At Once," which starred a predominantly Asian cast and cleaned up at this year's ceremony with other awards, including best actress, best supporting actor and actress and best original screenplay.

"As a longtime fan, this is an incredibly disappointing comment," writer Anita Li weighed in.

"Everything Everywhere All At Once is a quintessentially American immigrant tale, and both directors and much of the cast are American born. I'm also quite surprised – your filmography has always resonated with me because you seemed to understand the human condition, particularly what it's like for outsiders who struggle to understand and be understood," she continued in part. 

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In this handout photo provided by A.M.P.A.S., Oscar statuettes are seen backstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Al Seib/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)

Another said, "If you're referring to Everything Everywhere All at Once, it was produced by an Asian-American who was born and raised in America and lived here his whole life. The Daniels [the directors] are also American born and raised filmmakers. It was also financed by A24, an American studio, and it was filmed and made in America… the only international film to have won Best Picture was parasite."

Others criticized Schrader as "out of touch" and accused him of "right wing characterization."

Some supported his take, however, accusing the film industry of suffering declining quality and sensationalizing diversity over merit.

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(L-R) Stephanie Hsu, Daniel Kwan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Scheinert, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Wang, and Ke Huy Quan, winners of the Best Feature award for "Everything Everywhere All at Once, pose in the IMDb Portrait Studio at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards on March 04, 2023, in Santa Monica, California.  (Photo by Michael Rowe/Getty Images for IMDb)

"I agree with Paul," one profile said in part, arguing the awards should reduce international input as Schrader said. 

"The Oscars needs to go back to rewarding merit and excellence in major studio filmmaking, and not present itself as a smarmy exercise in multi-national virtue signaling," one person wrote.

"The Oscars mean less each year and the reasons you stated are valid and true," another supporter wrote.

Schrader's post coincides with conversations about diversity at the Academy Awards, including a resurgence of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, which first spawned eight years ago and resurfaced this January after several Black actors and filmmakers were snubbed from the nominations. 

In 2020, the Academy also announced diversity requirements set to be fully implemented in 2024 which will limit Best Picture nominees to films meeting the requirement of ensuring "equitable representation on and off screen" by allowing more people of color to fill more roles in films, according to a press release.

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