#OscarsSoWhite: The Motion Picture Academy Votes To Double Membership Diversity By 2020

The lack of diversity among Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members in terms of background, ethnicity and age has been blamed for numerous Oscar’s alleged shortcomings, including a seeming disregard for comedic performances and a perceived bias against horror, science-fiction, fantasy, superheroes, stories focused on marginalized communities and other genres widely beloved by an increasingly diverse global audience but ignored by The Academy.

Others insisted the Oscars merely reflect more systemic hurdles faced by minorities and women in Hollywood as a whole. But only for a moment. “The nominees are still the same as they were a week ago”. And I think, you know, what people have a tendency to say – oh, it doesn’t matter; it’s the Oscars; it’s a silly award show; it’s about what you’re wearing on the red carpet.

“My wife and I will be in my courtside seats”, he said.

If the rule change “sidelines a lot of geezers in the academy who don’t appreciate “Straight Outta Compton, ‘ then the next ‘Straight Outta Compton” could make the list next year”, he said.

In response to the outcry, the academy released some “historic” goals in that it wants to double the number of women and diverse academy members by 2020. In 2012, the LA Times did a survey of about 5,000 of them, and what the survey discovered was that the membership is about 93 percent white, about 76 percent male and the average age was 63 years old. But most who cheered the move emphasized a longer, ongoing struggle.

Selma director Ava DuVernay also shared her thoughts via Twitter, calling it “One good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color + women artists”. That is all it is, it’s a first step. “Now let’s have the studios, the production companies, agencies, unions and financiers follow suit for diversity”.

Shawn Edwards, co-founder of the African-American Film Critics Association, said this change was crucial to gradually change the academy make-up.

Whether the academy can shift the focus onto the larger industry will be challenging.

At the producers awards on Saturday, there were frequent references to the diversity issue. Black-ish star Anthony Anderson presented an award for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and jumped on the opportunity to comment when no one was present to accept the honor.

Aiming at the renewal mechanism of its members, the Academy also announced changes to its voting procedures, with each new member’s voting status only lasting 10 years, and renewed if the member has been active in motion pictures during that time. This is a greater cause for concern, since it feels like the slates being greenlit are more Caucasian in the last couple of years.

Therefore after the meeting, Academyissued a statement on revealing the new rules for membership and its steps to include more members of different races and gender.

He added that as well as the Academy’s membership lacking diversity, “the entertainment industry is predominantly run by white men”. Boone Isaacs pointedly signaled that the academy’s actions were not sufficient for Hollywood.