AP Newsbreak: Film academy announced reforms to diversify

A member can gain lifetime voting status if they pass three 10-year periods and are still active or if they won or are nominated for an Oscar. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three 10-year voting terms. Those rules will be retroactively applied, though it will not affect this year’s show. As such, anyone who hasn’t been involved in the film industry for a decade could have their voting status revoked.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences came under serious scrutiny after it revealed its all-white slate of Oscar nominees earlier this month.

The roster of the 6,000 or so academy members has never been publicly disclosed, though a 2012 Los Angeles Times study found its members were almost 94 percent white and 77 percent male.

NPR’s Neda Ulaby reports that the academy called an emergency meeting on Thursday night in response to threats of boycotts against this year’s awards ceremony.

Meanwhile, the Academy will launch “an ambitious, global campaign” to recruit new members, while at the same time, maintaining its traditional process of having current members sponsor new ones.

Another measure will see the Academy add three new seats to its board of governors, with the hope that these additions will help diversity the leadership of the organisation.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has vowed drastic changes to diversify the academy’s largely white membership.

He added that as well as the Academy’s membership lacking diversity, “the entertainment industry is predominantly run by white men”.

Boone Isaacs said she is ready to embrace “any and all ways we can increase the conversation about storytelling and how to bring more diverse voices in storytelling into the marketplace”. “The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020”.

Confirming he would be joining his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in not attending, Will Smith said: “We’re uncomfortable to stand there and say that this is OK”.

“One good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color + women artists”, the Selma director tweeted.

“It was her call to action, for herself, and for me and for our family to be a part of the solution”, added the two-time Oscar nominee for his roles in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.

The Academy is set to meet next week and could vote on rule changes that could effect change on this issue for next year and beyond.

“I judge the Nicholl fellowships and the Student Academy Awards, but am I not qualified to vote?” asked Weisman, referring to academy mentorship programs in which he has been involved.

The announcement also raised the question of how the Academy will define being “active in motion pictures” and what process it will use to review members’ eligibility for voting rights.