In the lead up to the 86th annual Academy Awards, one prevalent meme was that some Oscar voters simply didn’t want to watch “12 Years a Slave.” As it turns out, that was true: at least two anonymous members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences apparently never saw Steve McQueen’s eventual Best Picture winner, this despite placing the film atop their Oscar ballots.
The surprising revelation comes via the Los Angeles Times: “All the same, two Oscar voters privately admitted that they didn’t see ’12 Years a Slave,’ thinking it would be upsetting. But they said they voted for it anyway because, given the film’s social relevance, they felt obligated to do so.”
During her Oscars monologue, host Ellen DeGeneres made reference to that kind of thinking with a joke about how the evening might go: “Possibility number one: ’12 Years a Slave’ wins Best Picture. Possibility number two: You’re all racists.”
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