Academy promises huge changes after all-white Oscar controversy

The Academy has been struggling to promote diversity since previous year when lack of diversity became a concerning issue.

For the last three years, the academy has been in the midst of a push for more diversity, inviting larger and demographically broader groups to join its 6,261 voting members. They would be absolved of paying dues and, except for voting, their academy privileges will remain the same.

Members can still get locked in for life if they’ve had three, 10-year voting terms, or if they receive an Oscar nomination.

The Academy’s Board of Governors said the changes are created to “make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse”.

Forced to make some major changes, the Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, with consent of the board, released a statement on January 22, saying that they passed a sweeping vote to ensure historic measures are taken, reports E!

The changes not only expand diversity of future membership but change the demographic of current members.

Audiences and actors will argue until the cowboys come home about whether or not a particular performer deserved a glistening gold trophy. “93 percent white, 76 percent male, average age 63”.

In an email sent by Boone Isaacs to the Academy’s membership, she described the changes as “a series of courageous steps”.

She has spoken eloquently of her heartbreak about the scandal but there are other factors at play too: money and reputation.

Some of the film industry’s most prominent African-Americans – including Will Smith (widely deemed as being snubbed in the Best Actor category for his performance in Concussion), his wife and fellow actor Jada Pinkett Smith, and director Spike Lee – have publicly slammed the Academy, some even calling for an Oscar boycott.

The Academy’s action is arriving in the midst of weeks of sustained, widespread criticism regarding its recently announced 2016 nominations.

The changes also include 10-year limits on the voting abilities of new members of the Academy, which will be removed if the member is not “active in motion pictures” in the intervening time.

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.

According to the Academy, the Board of Governors voted Thursday night to begin “an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity”.

Comedian Chris Rock is facing calls to withdraw from his role as host of this year’s ceremony as the row intensifies. Thanks to the last two years of nominees, the Oscars have absorbed the lion’s share of the spotlight on diversity. “So what we really need is people in positions to greenlight those stories, not a hunk of metal”, he said.

“Oscar-winners George Clooney and Lupita Nyong’o are also among those who have expressed disappointment over the nominations”.

She told France’s Europe 1: “We can never know…”

Black actors who won Oscars during that period included Octavia Spencer for “The Help”, Mo’Nique for “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire”, Jennifer Hudson for “Dreamgirls” and Jamie Foxx for “Ray”.