I’m a big fan of Julie Delpy. Have been for years. I pull for her and her films, including last year’s Before Midnight. Before Midnight was my favorite film of 2013, and one I think deserves some recognition at tonight’s Academy Awards.

That won’t happen, of course, and it looks like Julie Delpy won’t be too sad when her film is passed up. The actress, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (along with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke), had some harsh words for Hollywood and its most prestigious prize night.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Delpy spoke about awards ceremonies in general, and the Oscar voters, specifically:

We have the Golden Globes. If you could see it, you wouldn’t believe that there’s anything good about it. The same goes for the Oscars. It’s 90 per cent white men over 70 who need money because they haven’t done anything in a long time. You just need to give them two or three presents and they’re in your pocket. It doesn’t mean anything to me, so I don’t really care if there are women in the selection process.

There’s no question that I, as a lover of all kinds of movies, greatly enjoy the Oscars and the Golden Globes, and the glitz of the biggest self-congratulatory nights in the industry. But it’s important to remember that these awards ceremonies, while important for a host of cultural reasons, are not really about rewarding the best films, or even promoting cinema.

The Oscars are, fist and foremost, about Hollywood, and an industry promoting itself as an industry. Passing awards around from insiders to insiders tends to leave a lot of outsiders on the outside. That the film business remains overwhelmingly male and white is not news. But the fact still matters greatly. And Delpy is right in her criticism: winning is about promotion, and serving an image, whatever that image may be at any given time. Kudos to her for the blunt reminder.

Also of interest are Delpy’s words on independent film. Delpy has largely been involved in the US in independent cinema, and she had a few choice words for the major shifts indie film has seen over the past 20 years. She see the Weinsteins as particularly problematic in turning indie cinema into mainstream Hollywood.

I think they [Weinsteins] love cinema, but they also like to take a movie and give it an added value, then kill everything left behind. This has a lot to do with the Oscars. In the 90s, there were real independent movies, but they have slowly been crushed by the majors. The minute they take over something, they crush it.

I’ve made some big movies before already. C*** stuff like The Three Musketeers. Every time I’ve become a part of the Hollywood mainstream, it’s been c***! Let’s be honest: 90 per cent of movies made in Hollywood are c***.