Oscar organisers announce plans to double female and minority voters

Jada Pinkett Smith echoed Lee’s sentiments in her own social media video, while singer/actor Tyrese called on ceremony host Chris Rock to quit the gig and urged other Hollywood stars to show their support for the cause by boycotting the high-profile event too to demand change.

Actor Will Smith, director Spike Lee and a handful of others vow to skip the February 28 awards.

In order to immediately increase diversity on the Board of Governors, the Academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the President for three-year terms and confirmed by the Board.

On Saturday, Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, speaking as a member of a panel of producers nominated for awards by the Producers Guild of America, called the new academy rules “a great step” towards more diversity.

Beginning this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures in that decade. This system results in many individuals of the same race being let into the organization, who are likely to vote for movies with stories and actors they relate to more.

The Academy’s action is arriving in the midst of weeks of sustained, widespread criticism regarding its recently announced 2016 nominations. “I am sorry that they offended some people, but, at the very least, I am happy that they started a conversation”, Damon said.

Those reforms — which the academy boasted were “sweeping” and “historic” — were received by many as necessary updates for an institution that the Los Angeles Times in 2012 found is 94 percent white and 77 percent male. It is unusual that the overwhelmingly white slates of recent nominees have gone against this tide. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs promised “big changes” in a statement released on January 18th, writing, “Change is not coming as fast as we would like. And we have 24% women and we’re doubling that as well”, she said.

For the second year in a row, African-Americans failed to grab nominations in the four major Oscars categories, prompting anger in the Hollywood community over the lack of diversity in the movie industry.

There is no reason whatsoever to penalize the Academy member for the state of the industry, or for nominations for an award by the separate Academy branches.

“Writing on Twitter, Selma director Ava DuVernay – whose omission from last year’s best director shortlist was the source of some controversy – said “shame [was] a helluva motivator”. 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. There are only two ways to be admitted into the organization: either be nominated for an Oscar or receive sponsorship from two current members of the Academy.

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.

The changes are “one good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color and women artists”.