Academy Award winner Roman Polanski won’t be heading to the Oscars anytime soon.
On Tuesday, a judge denied Polanski’s request to be reinstated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, finding that the organization behind the Oscars had a right to expel him in May 2018.
Polanski sued the Academy in April 2019, alleging that he had been thrown out without any warning and without a fair process. Polanski fled the United States in 1978, after pleading guilty to the rape of a 13-year-old girl. He has remained a fugitive ever since, and efforts to extradite him have been unsuccessful.
Judge Mary Strobel concluded that while the Academy could have given Polanski advance notice, the organization had ultimately corrected that failing and given him a fair hearing. Strobel stated,
“Board had cause to expel Petitioner,” Strobel wrote. “While the Board could have found the circumstances surrounding Petitioner’s continued fugitive status, including his allegations of serious judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, mitigated the need for expulsion, the Board’s decision is supported by the evidence, was not arbitrary or capricious, and was not an abuse of discretion.”
Polanski’s attorney, Harland Braun, said he would probably not appeal. Asked why Academy membership was important to Polanski, Braun said it was not.
“It means nothing to him,” Braun said. “It’s the idea he’s being thrown out without any due process.”
