Sean Penn has accused the organisers of the Oscars of being cowards who, in effect, limit the kinds of films that can be funded and made.

The 64-year-old actor said at the Marrakech Film Festival that he gets excited about the Academy Awards only on the rare occasion that films he values are nominated.

“The producers of the academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the world of expression and, in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and limiting different cultural expressions,” Penn said at the festival, where he received a career achievement award this week.

“I don’t get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards,” he said, noting exceptions when certain films grace the ceremony, including Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez.

Penn’s remarks dovetail with longstanding criticisms of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for lacking diversity within the ranks of its members and the films that they celebrate with awards.

The institution has in recent years taken steps to reform and rebrand itself, but has faced criticism for not going far enough.

Penn also lauded Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi and his latest film The Apprentice about US President-elect Donald Trump.

It faced difficulty finding an American distributor in the lead-up to the US election in November.

“It’s kind of jaw dropping how afraid this ‘business of mavericks’ is when they get a great film like that with great, great acting,” he said.

“They too can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman.”

Sean Penn
Sean Penn (Doug Peters/PA)

As part of a career tribute, the Marrakech Film Festival is screening four of Penn’s films this week in Morocco’s tourism capital.

Local media in Morocco reported several audience members exiting a screening of Milk during a scene that depicted two men in bed.

Homosexuality is illegal under Morocco’s penal code, although cases are not frequently prosecuted.

The actor, whose 2023 film Superpower documents war in Ukraine, also voiced support for President Volodymyr Zelensky and called himself a “patriot in crisis” in response to a question about the American political landscape.