I'm tired of the Oscar community's dominant narrative is that Al Pacino got the least deserving Oscar ever. As someone who never saw his 70s stuff at the time, I thought it was fantastic. Kirk Douglas also wrote in his biography that it was his favorite performance.

Lee Grant in Shampoo and Don Ameche in Cocoon are way worse examples of unremarkable performances that are dues.

I agree with your views on diversity. If all films have to clear some diversity barrier to get nominated next year. Hopefully, that'll put all films on an even playing field and we don't get tokenism votes.

I saw EEOA without good audio on a plane. I'm not sure how good the acting was. I'm also not sure how much dues go to Jamie Lee Curtis if her only Oscarworthy performance was A Fish Called Wanda.