Film Academy Votes To Increase Diversity

USA TODAY speaks to Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson about the organizations recent changes to promote diversity. In 2012, the LA Times did a survey of about 5,000 of them, and what the survey discovered was that the membership is about 93 percent white, about 76 percent male and the average age was 63 years old. “We need to do more, and better and more quickly”. Earlier this week, following Pinkett Smith’s call to action, Isaacs further added that she would soon implement “dramatic” changes in a push for better representation. “I’m just not watching”, said Friday.

Warner Bros, one of Hollywood’s major studios, issued a statement within hours embracing the Oscar announcement, and Kevin Tsujihara, chairman of the Time Warner Inc-owned (TWX.N) studio, added, “there is more we must and will do”. “And we have 24% women and we’re doubling that as well”, she said. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three ten-year voting terms.

Now, Lee has weighed in on the newly announced changes, and while he applauds the Academy for making steps, he’s sticking to his original plan for Oscars night: attending a Knicks game.

Beginning this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures in that decade.

Oscars head Boone Isaacs said the new measures announced on Friday would “begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition”. It clearly wants to make sure there isn’t a third year of Oscar whiteout. “The infrastructure is the problem”, said Mr Felix Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.

“When we talk about diversity, you do it in the casting of the movie, not the casting of the show”, Damon said, suggesting that having a diverse cast of actors playing the parts is more important than having a diverse filmmaking team working behind the scenes.

Reaction came swiftly. Ava DuVernay, director of last year’s best picture-nominee “Selma”, tweeted that the changes were “one good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color and women artists”.

In the episode, the leftwing actor suggested to filmmaker Effie Brown, who is a black woman, that racial diversity only mattered onscreen and not behind it. It will actually produce and distribute content, starting with a web series called “For the Love”, to be streamed via Comcast XFinity.

On Thursday evening, the members of the Academy gathered and approved of the organization’s efforts to increase diversity in the council.

But Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling and Oscar-winning actor Sir Michael Caine have expressed reservations about the campaign.

“You have to understand that the struggle of oppressed people anywhere in the world is a struggle of oppressed people around the world”, she told John Pienaar on BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics. “If you take a homogenous group of people and ask ‘give me your top 5, ‘ you are going to find those people who are alike demographically”.