….For awarding films.

We are less than a week away from film’s biggest night, making it the perfect time to talk about the need for voter suppression. Not for real elections but for things like the Academy Awards.

Over the last decade, with increased public attention, the Academy has been exposed as having severe flaws in its voting system. You might recall the #OscarsSoWhite campaign of 2015 or the discussions about Oscar bait movies, studio campaigns, and recency bias.

The voting body is made up of over 10,000 “industry experts” (Dr. Evil air quotes) who vote in all categories. The voting body is predominantly white males over the age of 60, and while there have been substantial efforts to balance the demographics in recent years, they do not have a one-in, one-out policy, leading to an overinflated voting pool.

If you have 10,000 experts, you don’t have one.

This year, voting discrepancies are rearing their ugly heads in the form of a flat-out lack of effort, attention, or maybe just plain disinterest.

Two voters this year revealed they would have voted for Ralph Fiennes for his spectacular performance in Conclave but opted not to, since they believed he had already won the award for his role in Schindler’s List (he did not). Instead, they opted to vote for Adrien Brody for his performance in the film The Brutalist (a film voters are openly admitting to skipping due to its enormous runtime). The kicker? Adrien Brody has won an Oscar. Fiennes has not.

Other voters were very transparent that they did not like Dune: Part One, so they decided to skip the sequel—a movie widely praised by critics and audiences alike. Fans have also presented substantial arguments for Dune: Part Two’s inclusion in many other categories, citing its snub as one of the year’s biggest flubs, sparking outrage.

We live in the age of outrage. It is very easy to find passionate discourse these days, but reviewing the voting system for film’s highest honors, one thing is clear: we need to make a change.

Fortunately for you, my dear reader, I happen to have a foolproof solution to fix Oscar voting, and it is rather simple.

Make It Jury Duty.

Let’s strip the power from the so-called industry elites and put it in the hands of about 1,000 people of varying genders, ages, colors, and creeds. Just regular folks across the country who will be summoned for Oscar Duty.

They will be excused from work, fed, and provided enough time to watch all the films nominated in any given year. We will move away from ranked-choice voting, which is great at picking the least bad thing but terrible at picking the best.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) would still handle the nominations (throw them a little bone). But now, all voting is done by regular, randomly selected folks. They will watch all films with little to no bias, prior knowledge, or historical baggage and tell the Academy who truly deserves to win. No Oscar campaigns, no lack of diversity, no recency bias. A perfect solution to a flawed system.

The 94th Academy Awards are this Sunday. I won’t be watching— not to protest the voting process. But, because I’ve only seen Anora. I thought it was good. Had I been called, I would have served though.