Academy to Make Oscars More Diversity

An “ambitious, global campaign” will recruit “qualified new members who represent greater diversity”, the academy said in a statement, adding that it wants to double “the number of women and diverse members” by 2020. It also agreed to establish three new board seats, with those representatives being nominated by the Academy president for three-year terms and approved by the board.

President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African-American to lead the organization, made the announcement after critics had hit the academy since it released the list of nominees a week earlier.

Current members can still sponsor new ones, but voting rights will only last for 10 years and members can only retain them after that if they’ve remained active in the industry during that decade. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three 10-year voting terms.

Director Spike Lee has praised the Academy for making the effort to change its rules on membership but admits that he still won’t attend the Oscars.

How is the Academy going to achieve that change?

Those losing eligibility to vote would be moved from active to “emeritus” status, absolving them of paying dues while leaving their academy privileges intact, except for voting.

African-American actor and director Don Cheadle says the Academy’s planned membership changes to improve diversity are a “step in the right direction”.

The latest to wade into the row is this year’s best actress nominee Charlotte Rampling, who condemned much of the protest as being “racist against whites”. No black person got nominated and this caused an uproar last week, after Jada Pinkett-Smith challenged the Academy calling for a boycott.

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.

The diversity controversy erupted following the Oscar nominations this month which saw no actors of color in each of the major acting categories for the second year in a role. “And I think that we have”, she said. So the people who were nominating next year will reflect this changed Academy. Some other activists had urged Rock to withdraw; he never addressed those directly, but insiders said he believes he can do more good by remaining, since the Academy Awards reach a worldwide audience.

He told Bustle: “I’m glad that Cheryl Boone Isaacs took some action”. “I am sorry that they offended some people, but, at the very least, I am happy that they started a conversation about diversity in Hollywood. That’s a part of it too that I think people are just focusing on that isn’t really the issue”.

KEEGAN: Yeah. I mean, around the newsroom, we were referring to this as the nuclear option. The criticism is that [the academy] is just a bunch of old white guys – and that’s fair – and how are we going to remedy that?