Academy overhauls rules to promote Oscar diversity

Oscar statuettes sit on a work bench prior to being assembled at R.S. Owens & Company during a media demonstration 9 February 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The last time African-American actors were without any nominations in acting categories for two years in a row was between 1997 and 1998.

The following is an open letter to the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences by Professor Stephen Geller concerning the new rules meant allow for more diversity, as a result of the outrage from the lack of minority nominations for this year’s Oscars.

“I don’t think it’s the Academy’s responsibility exclusively because so much of the Academy is fed by who’s working in the industry and if people aren’t getting jobs in the industry, they can’t be in the Academy because they aren’t working”, he said. Academy honchos, including president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson, opted not to wait for the regularly scheduled board meeting on January 26.

“It was important for us to be heard”, said Isaacs.

The nominations came as a shock to many as several movie critics and analyses predicted actors such as Will Smith (“Concussion”), Idris Elba (“Beast of No Nation”) and Samuel L. Jackson (“The Hateful Eight”) would be shoe-in nominees.

“I want everybody to know and I want you to know that this organisation, the Academy, has been active for the last three, four years about including new and different voices – filmmakers, whether of gender or race or national origin – we want them at the table”, she said.

In an email to membership, Boone Isaacs sought to assure that even “emeritus” members will still receive annual for-your-consideration screeners from studios – usually seen as the most enviable perk of academy membership.

Will this action change Hollywood?

Industry stars including Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have said they will boycott the awards.

Oscars head Boone Isaacs said the new measures announced on Friday would “begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition”. It’s time the Academy got its diversity act together.

In order to immediately increase diversity on the board, the Academy will establish three new governor seats, to be nominated by the president for three-year terms and confirmed by the board.

But increasing the number of invitations and extending them to a more diverse group of people did little to change the overall makeup of the membership.

The organization also plans to diversify its leadership beyond the board of governors by adding new members to key decision-making committees, and further diversify its membership with a global campaign to identify and recruit diverse talent. However, this will not affect this year’s event.