'Furious' star Vin Diesel says Oscars weighted against action films.

Byline: Louise Watt

BEIJING -- Vin Diesel said Friday that the latest "Fast & Furious'' film deserves a best picture Oscar but has two strikes against it when it comes to the Academy -- it's an action flick and it's a sequel.

"Do I shy away from aiming high? No, I don't,'' said the 47-year-old actor, who has appeared in virtually all of the "Fast & Furious'' action films based around fast cars. He spoke to The Associated Press while in Beijing to promote the new film.

"And yet we all know that there's a little stigma towards action films, we know it, we've heard people complain about it, we've heard Marvel complain about it, we've heard DC complain about it, and now 'Harry Potter,' 'Hunger Games,' 'Batman' has never gotten a shot at that,'' he said.

Alluding to the fact that many of the recent Oscar best picture winners haven't fared well at the box office, Diesel said: "The Oscars have been somewhat criticized in the last couple of years for maybe not being as populist as they could be, but we have a very powerful movie here.''

He said that "Fast & Furious 7'' has an "emotional toll,'' which may make people argue that it is more directed toward women. "We're actually responding to the fact that our woman audience has just increased and has either eclipsed or threatening to eclipse our male audience, we've seen that across the board,'' said Diesel, who also produces the Universal Pictures' movie.

Diesel said that the Academy hasn't given a best picture Oscar to a sequel since...