Oscars pledge to double number of female, minority members by 2020

Other changes include limiting members’ voting status to a period of 10 years, to be extended only if the individual remains active in film during that decade.

The most dramatic new rule changes what has always been the lifetime voting privilege attached to Academy membership to a 10-year term.

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

The Academy’s Board of Governors said the changes are created to “make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse”.

For the second consecutive year, all 20 acting nominees at the Oscars are white, which has prompted criticism from actors including George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon and Will Smith, who has announced he will be boycotting the awards ceremony next month (February).

Since the 2016 Oscar nominations were announced last week, many of Hollywood’s biggest names including, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lupita Nyong’o, Spike Lee, David Oyelowo, George Clooney and Michael Moore, have spoken out about the lack of diversity.

Without providing details, the academy’s statement also said it would “supplement the traditional process” by which members are recruited – an invitation process meant to focus on achievement – with “an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity”.

Variety points out that, of 305 eligible films this year, only a handful were made by minority directors, and fewer were directed by women.

The changes were adopted unanimously by the Academy’s Board of Governors at a meeting on Thursday night.

To increase diversity on the board of governors immediately, the Academy said it would establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the president for three-year terms and confirmed by the board.

The Board is applying these same standards retroactively to current members. This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders.

For the last three years, the academy has been in the midst of a push for more diversity, inviting larger and demographically broader groups to join its 6,261 voting members.

“This conversation is penetrating everywhere, and that’s the good thing”, she said.

Ava DuVernay, director of last year’s best-picture nominee “Selma”, called the academy’s announcement “one good step in a long complicated journey for people of colour and women artists”.

“You can never know for sure, but maybe black actors did not deserve to be in the final selection”, Rampling told Europe 1 radio. “I think it’s really sad and Al [Sharpton] is just a guy who wants to get publicity for himself”, he said before going on to reference “Clueless” actress Stacey Dash, who appeared on the show ahead of him and claimed we “need to get rid of channels like B.E.T. and the B.E.T. Awards where you’re only awarded if you’re black” if we want to eliminate segregation.