Oscars invite new members in diversity push
Organizers of the Academy Awards, facing criticism over the lack of diversity in the Oscars, has invited nearly 700 new members with a focus on young, female and minorities.
LOS ANGELES — Six months after announcing intentions to double the number of female and minority members in its ranks by 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 683 new members to join the organization.
The academy says its invitees are 46 percent female, 41 percent minority and represent 59 countries.
Should all of the invitees accept, the new class would make the academy’s overall membership 27 percent female and 11 percent non-white — up from 25 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
Idris Elba, Chadwick Boseman, Eva Mendes, America Ferrera and Anika Noni Rose are among the actors invited to membership. Other potential new members helping to increase the academy’s diversity include Chinese cinematographer Zhao Fei, Japanese production designer Yohei Taneda, Mexican director Patricia Riggen and musicians such as Fitzgerald Diggs, who’s better known RZA from Wu Tang Clan.
The 2016 group of invitees is the academy’s largest ever and more than doubles last year’s class, said President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
She said the academy has worked for several years to diversify its largely white, male membership. Last year’s #OscarsSoWhite movement amplified that conversation.
The academy announced sweeping changes to its recruitment and voting practices in January after a second straight year of allwhite acting nominees for the Academy Awards.
In March, the organization added three new members to its board of governors and appointed six minority members to other leadership positions.
“I think because the conversation has truly exploded that we were able to have the size and the diversity of talent increase even more for 2016,” Boone Isaacs said Wednesday. “We have recognized diverse talent throughout our history,” she said. “What is of-the-now is how expansive and diverse our industry has become.” She said academy members have been energized by the mandate to bring emerging or overlooked talents into their ranks. “It’s been like a charge of electricity,” she said. “It’s the topic of conversation, and it’s a good one.”