Film Academy pledges to diversify membership

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy, issued a statement about the board’s decision.

The organiser of the prestigious awards show said that this would be achieved via radical changes to its governing structure, recruitment and voting requirements. Additionally, the academy promises to immediately add new members to its executive and board committees where “key decisions about membership and governance are made”.

Forced to make some major changes, the Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, with consent of the board, released a statement on January 22, saying that they passed a sweeping vote to ensure historic measures are taken, reports E!

After this year’s Oscar nominations were announced, some criticized the picks for their homogeneity, prompting the trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite along the way.

The changes will be applied later this year and will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars, according to the Academy.

Acclaimed director Spike Lee, actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith all announced they would stay away from this year’s ceremony on February 28.

Ever since the 2016 Oscars nominations came in, there has been a wave of controversy surrounding the lack of any persons of color (male or female) being nominated for an acting award. Performers who do not remain active will be demoted to emeritus status, meaning they will continue to have all other benefits of an Academy membership, but will no longer be able to vote. (That may also depend on whether any other white nominees decide to rampling themselves out of contention with insensitive remarks.) These ideas seem like a good first step, even if they won’t change anything at this year’s Oscars.

The Academy will also launch “an ambitious, global campaign” to recruit qualified, diverse members. Ava DuVernay, director of last year’s best picture-nominee “Selma“, tweeted her approval of the new measures, adding in a subsequent tweet: “Shame is a helluva motivator”. Some may argue the Academy’s delayed response doesn’t exactly constitute “leadership”, but at least they’re offering some sort of substantive response as opposed to maintaining the silence that’s characterized years past.

There have been only four African Americans to win the coveted Best Actor award-Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, and Jamie Foxx-while Halle Berry remains the sole black woman who’s won in the Best Actress category for her performance in the 2002 romantic drama, Monster’s Ball.