Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS), said on January 18.
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After public furor over the second consecutive year of all-white Oscar acting nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to endorse new procedures for increasing diversity at the Oscars and within the academy itself.
In an email sent by Boone Isaacs to the Academy’s membership, she described the changes as “a series of courageous steps”.
The organisers of the Oscars have pledged to double the number of female and minority members of the Academy by 2020. Previously, all members had the right to vote for the rest of their lives, but now, a member’s voting status will be assessed every 10 years.
On the board of governors itself, there are now 17 women among the 51 members, making up 33 percent of the board, which has the ultimate authority in determine Academy policies.
Those who want to join the Academy must be sponsored by two existing members of the mostly white Academy; or they must be nominated for an Oscar, which has proven hard for filmmakers and actors of color for years.
On top of that, new Academy members who are not Governors will be added to the Academy’s committees – the committees that make “key decisions”.
All 20 men and women nominated for best acting awards were white for the second year in a row.
In a statement, the Academy president said changes to membership would have “an immediate impact”.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, who sparked the Oscars boycott, had no immediate reaction to the reforms.
Another theory is that the preferential voting system for nominations will be overhauled, since a widely admired film could still fail to score a nomination because of a complicated system.
The most significant change implemented is related to the group’s voting procedures and will most likely affect older academy members who are no longer working.
The Academy Award winners will be announced at the Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles on February 28.
Under the new rules, the Academy will strip voting rights from those who have not been active in the industry for the past decade. There was only one non-white nominee in the director’s category, given to Latino Alejandro Iñárritu for his work on The Revenant. The same standards will apply retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria.
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In order to immediately increase diversity on the Board of Governors, the Academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the President for three-year terms and confirmed by the Board. During his speech, Elba said, “My agent and I, we’d get scripts and we were always asked to read the “black male” character”.
