Matt Damon slams ‘shameful’ lack of diversity

There is a remarked absence of filmmakers or actors of color in this year’s Oscars nominations.

Actor Will Smith, film director Spike Lee and a handful of others had vowed to skip the Feb 28 awards show.

“Right now the academy is too top-heavy old”, Edwards said. However, he the 85-year-old added: “All I know is there’s thousands of people in the Academy and a lot of them, the majority of them, haven’t won Oscars. The conversation out there was raging”. The academy now aims for women to comprise 48 percent of its membership and “diverse groups” at least 14 percent as an initial step.

Limiting the terms of inactive or retired members means they will be replaced by new, diverse voters. The rule changes undertaken by the Academy are a step in the right direction but should not be the end.

The new academy rules are created to speed up change. [/pullquote]”These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition”. Executives have made a decision to limit the power of members who have not been active in the film industry for extended periods of time – starting later in 2016, and new members will have to renew their membership every 10 years.

The changes made will not affect the voting of this year’s Oscars.

Matt Damon has said the movie business has “a long, long, long way to go” when it comes to diversity. “Our goal is to make our voting body reflective of filmmaking professionals who are active today”.

Their ranks have been joined by Dame Joan Collins, who has turned to Twitter to express her displeasure at Lee’s description of the Oscars as a “lilly white” [sic] event.

There is historical precedent for Boone Isaac’s efforts to change the academy’s membership. The white writers of “Straight Outta Compton” were nominated for their screenplay, while the stars of the N.W.A. biopic were left out.

“We’re not touching (the voting)”, Boone Isaacs said.

As BBC News reports, academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has confirmed that three new seats will be added to the Academy’s board of governors in a bid to improve the diversity of the panel. “I like that they’ve acted fast”.

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

Some who had earlier raised concerns about the academy’s all-white slate of nominations praised the move.

“I applaud their attempts to do something about it”, said Don Cheadle, who was nominated for best actor in 2005 for his performance in “Hotel Rwanda”. They’re now saying they’re really going to make changes to how the voting happens.

The singer had a very wise take on #OscarsSoWhite this weekend, when reporters caught up with him at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The reaction was also generally positive around Hollywood.

“So I resent members being called Lilywhite#wrong”.