PLOT TWIST!

Film academy: OK, we’ll boost diversity

AMID DEAFENING calls for more diversity, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pledged “historic” reforms Friday.

The Oscars organization issued a statement promising to double its number of female and minority members by 2020.

It also will add three new seats to its 51-member board of governors to “immediately increase diversity” at the highest level, the statement said.

In possibly the most sweeping change, the group said new members’ voting status is guaranteed only for 10 years and then will be renewed only if the new member remains active in the industry.

Members can still score lifetime voting rights, but only once they qualify for three 10-year terms or if they’re nominated for an award.

Voting membership previously was automatically granted for life.

The changes came after a firestorm of criticism following the latest crop of Oscar nominees announced last week.

All 20 men and women nominated for best acting awards were white for the second year in a row.

Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu was the only non-white nominee for best director, and all the directors nominated were men.

Critically acclaimed films featuring black protagonists such as “Straight Outta Compton,” “Concussion,” “Creed” and “Beasts Of No Nation” were shut out of the best film category.

This year’s glaring lack of diversity led “Malcolm X” director Spike Lee and “Ali” actress Jada Pinkett Smith to state publicly they would not attend the ceremony Feb. 28.

The academy said its board of governors unanimously approved the new reforms late Thursday.

“The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in the statement.

“These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition,” she said.

The academy further promised a “global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.”

The academy does not issue a membership list

or disclose demographic information. But the Los Angeles Times confirmed the identities of 89% of Academy members in 2012 and found that 94% were Caucasian and 77% were male.

Only about 2% of the academy was black, while Latinos composed less than 2%. Oscar voters had a median age of 62, the study found.

People younger than 50 constituted only about 14% of the membership, The Times reported.

Meanwhile, Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling backtracked on her claims from earlier this week that the boycott of the show was “racist to whites.”

“I simply meant to say that in an ideal world every performance will be given equal opportunities for consideration,” Rampling, up for the best actress prize for her work in “45 Years,” told CBS News’ “Sunday Morning.”