Spike Lee Still Skipping Oscars, Praises Academy’s Diversity Efforts

In a statement, it was revealed the Academy is committing to doubling its amount of women and minorities.

Stephanie Allain, a producer of “Beyond the Lights” and a member of the academy, said she was elated, especially with the addition of three members to Board of Governors who, she assumed, would be women or people of colour. Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee and Will Smith said they will not attend.

Meanwhile Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling has called a boycott “racist against white people”.

The measures will ultimately remove voting privileges from older Academy members and aggressively recruit new voting members “who represent greater diversity”.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up”, Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement.

It will also involve new members on decisions about membership and governance, giving them a chance to become more active in decision-making and to help spot and nurture future leaders. “That’s the problem. You can change the Academy, but if there are no black films being produced, what is there to vote for?” She covers film for the Los Angeles Times. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three 10-year voting terms.

African-American actor and director Don Cheadle says the Academy’s planned membership changes to improve diversity are a “step in the right direction”. But “active” is an imprecise, potentially fraught term in a Hollywood where even the most successful players can go years without a project getting off the ground.

Executives have chose 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 decisions said to be made effective following next year is to ensure that more members from different races will be included in the Academy.

In regards to the action taken, Damon told Bustle: “I’m glad that Cheryl Boone Isaacs [Academy President] took some action”.

The surprise Friday release led to immediate response from Selma director Ava DuVernay who tweeted, “Just received from @TheAcademy”. The only place to me, or one of the places where it comes into play that’s tricky, is that these nominations actually translate into dollars and they translate into people’s ability to parlay.

“I really was disappointed”, she said after the January 14 nominations. We need to get out there with what we’ve been talking about internally, but now we have to put it into action.

The academy’s membership is made up of roughly 6,200 movie professionals around the world, and it was not immediately clear how many would be purged from the voting rolls by the new rule.

Additionally, several movies starring black actors in key black character roles, including Creed, as well as Concussion and Straight Outta Compton, were also left out of the nominations despite receiving critical acclaim.