Quotes From Smith, Elba and Others About the Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, organisers of the Oscar awards, pledged on Friday to double its membership of women and minorities by 2020 through an ambitious affirmative action plan that includes stripping some older members of voting privileges.

Tonight, actress Charlotte Rampling, who is nominated in Best Actress category this year for her role in 45 Years, waded into the controversy with her words, saying the outcry was unfair to the white actors who were nominated and added that, “It’s racist to white people”.

The chief strategy to increase diversity will offer new members a 10-year voting status that will be immediately renewed for another 10 years if the member was active in motion pictures within the decade.

Reese Witherspoon has called for a “more diverse voting membership” as she blasted the Academy Awards for its lack of diversity amongst this year’s nominations. This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders. High-profile performers and creators like Spike Lee, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith are boycotting this year’s ceremonies, and everyone from George Clooney to Robert Redford has commented on the larger movie industry’s approach to diversity and advocacy in recent weeks.

Boone Isaacs acknowledged that the academy can only honor films that ultimately get made, but she thinks the changes announced today will “move the needle” in all aspects of filmmaking.

“One good step in a long, complicated journey for people of colour + women artists”, she wrote on Twitter.

The new rules will apply to both new and existing members, but won’t affect the current membership’s ability to vote for this year’s Oscar winners.

The Academy voting membership, according to an LA Times study in 2012, is 94 per cent Caucasian and 77 per cent male.

Although industry personnel were quick to praise the decision, others have said the issue of diversity goes beyond awards ceremonies.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced a new plan to avoid #OscarsSoWhite happening again – and it’s going to make some people very, very mad.

The academy now aims for women to comprise 48 percent of its approximately 6,000 members and “diverse groups” at least 14 percent as an initial step.

“I do support the Oscar Ban movement’s position that the nominations do not reflect the diversity of our community”.

When asked to elaborate, Rampling said “one can never really know”, but that “perhaps sometimes black actors have not earned a place in the final running”.