How are the Oscars biased?

If you want to win an acting Oscar, your role should have a character who shows off his/her acting skills. Playing a person with a disability is a good way to do this: a boy with cerebral palsy (My Left Foot, 1989), autism (Rain Man, 1988), etc.

A surprising number of actresses have received Oscars/nominations for playing prostitutes (e.g., Kim Basinger, L. A. Confidential; Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite; Jane Fonda, Klute). More here: And the Oscar goes to... women who play wives, widows and prostitutes

It helps if you make a movie about an issue and then take the liberal side of that issue—and make it uplifting. Is your movie about race relations? Then you’re more likely to win an Oscar if you film Driving Miss Daisy than you are if you film Do the Right Thing. Both movies came out in the same year, but Daisy won four Oscars, including Best Picture. (DTRT received two nominations: best original script and best supporting actor. However, with the passing of time, Do The Right Thing has been hailed as a modern classic, so it achieved a kind of victory over the Oscars.)