6 Former Academy Members Have Been Banned from the Oscars — Here’s Why

While many celebrities have made history at the Oscars with groundbreaking wins, others have made headlines for controversy.

The 97th Academy Awards, set to take place on March 2, will see a star-studded lineup of actors, directors and performers walk the red carpet. However, some Hollywood names are guaranteed to be absent.

Six members of the entertainment industry remain banned from attending the prestigious event, including Will Smith, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.

After Smith’s 10-year ban was announced in 2022, the Academy shared its existing Standards of Conduct, which outline the organization’s ethical expectations for members.

The group emphasized that members should “act in a manner consistent with the good reputation of the Academy” and condemned “physical contact that is uninvited and, in the situation, inappropriate and unwelcome.”

The Standards of Conduct also affirm that if a member is found to have violated the standards, the Academy “may take any disciplinary action … up to and including suspension of membership or expulsion from membership.”

Here are six celebrities who have been banned from the Oscars — and what they did to warrant the punishment.

Carmine Caridi

In 2004, the Academy expelled actor Carmine Caridi after he was caught lending movie screeners sent by distributors to Academy voters for Oscar consideration.

After becoming an Academy member in 1982, Caridi — who died in May 2019 at 85 years old — regularly received advance screeners from distributors. After a man named Russell Sprague repaired his broken VCR, Caridi agreed to lend him some screeners. This continued for some time as he began to send more through the mail.

“I would send them to him before I even looked at them,” Caridi told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2017. “And then he would copy them and send them back.”

The FBI eventually caught on and called Caridi in to their Los Angeles office, offering him immunity in exchange for identifying Sprague.

In February 2004, the Academy’s board of governors voted to expel Caridi.

“They wrote me a letter,” he recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “‘You’re finished.’ ”

Not only was The Godfather actor banned, but he became the first Academy member to be expelled, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Caridi told the outlet he did not blame the Academy because he knew he violated its rules.

Harvey Weinstein

After he was accused of sexual assault in an October 2017 New York Times exposé and a New Yorker investigation (which ultimately led to the #MeToo Movement), film producer Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy.

Prior to his removal, the Academy condemned Weinstein’s alleged conduct as “repugnant, abhorrent, and antithetical to the high standards of the Academy and the creative community it represents.”

The Board of Governors later met to discuss the allegations and “voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him from the Academy,” per a statement released by the organization.

“We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over,” the statement continued. “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”

Weinstein became the second member to be expelled from the group. The producer was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2020 after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault, and an additional 16 years in 2023 after being found guilty of the same in Los Angeles.

Bill Cosby

The Academy expelled Cosby a month after his sexual assault conviction.

In April 2018, the disgraced actor was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in January 2004, resulting in a three to 10-year prison sentence.

Just days later, the Academy met and voted to expel Cosby “in accordance with the organization’s Standards of Conduct,” it announced in a statement.

“The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity,” the statement continued.

In June 2021, Cosby was released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

Roman Polanski

Director Roman Polanski was expelled from the Academy alongside Cosby for his rape conviction.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker had pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse in 1977 after a 13-year-old girl accused him of giving her alcohol and part of a quaalade. As part of a plea bargain, he served 42 days in jail but fled the U.S. before completing his 90-day sentence, remaining a fugitive for decades.

In an October 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Polanski reflected on the case, saying, “As far as what I did: It’s over. I pleaded guilty.”

The director still lives in Europe where he continues to make movies.

Adam Kimmel

Cinematographer Adam Kimmel was expelled from the Academy in response to his history as a registered sex offender.

Kimmel joined the Academy in 2007 — several years after his crimes. But when it came to light via a Variety exposé in November 2020 that he had been arrested and convicted for rape and assault of minors, the organization took action by removing him in March 2021, an Academy source told Variety.

In a statement to the outlet that November, the Academy wrote that their membership selection process is “based on an honor system that relies on the integrity of prospective members, their sponsors, and branch committee members to disclose any disqualifying information.”

The organization added that it would review the situation “in accordance with its bylaws” and would “continue to examine its member selection process regularly to ensure that it accurately reflects Academy values.”

Will Smith

Few moments in Oscar history have been as shocking as Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage at the 2022 ceremony.

While Rock was introducing the award for Best Documentary, he aimed a joke at Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, saying, “Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see ya.”

Moments later, Smith walked up to the stage and slapped Rock across the face. Rock seemed stunned and said, “Oh wow. Will Smith just smacked the s— out of me.”

Once Smith made it back to his seat, he yelled up to the stage, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—— mouth!”

Nearly two weeks later, the Academy’s Board of Governors banned Smith from attending any Academy events or programs for the next 10 years, starting April 8, 2022. In a letter obtained by PEOPLE, Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson apologized for not “adequately address[ing] the situation” during the broadcast.

“This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented,” they wrote.

The letter further explained that the discipline was “a step toward a larger goal of protecting the safety of our performers and guests, and restoring trust in the Academy.”

The King Richard actor responded in a statement obtained by PEOPLE, saying, “I accept and respect the Academy’s decision.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.