It also announced a new focus on diversity in voting members.
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“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up”, AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in the statement.
While Justice, himself, is not in danger of getting ousted from the Academy (he won an Oscar in 1986 and is therefore assured lifetime voting rights), he does speak up on behalf of all the other voters who are not so lucky and will subsequently be facing expulsion if they do not actively contribute to the industry again soon. “Just one random slave for the academy members to recognize us as a real, black movie”.
STAFF/REUTERS For a second straight year, all 20 acting Oscar nominees were white.
Goldberg’s response on Oscars boycott came after Jada Pinkett Smith’s announcement to not attend the 2016 ceremony.
Beiman said she felt “shock and hurt” when she received the directive, noting it didn’t define what “active in motion pictures” means. Are you saying that I have voted (consciously or unconsciously) to exclude women, members of the LGBT community and other minorities?
There have been many solutions offered up to “fix” the Academy, and it sounds like they’re moving in the right direction to freshen things up a bit with their almost 100 year old institution. Nothing. The membership’s experience is not the problem. Voting membership had previously been automatically held for life.
The academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Beiman’s letter.
While audiences embrace actors from all backgrounds, the executives clearly don’t do the same – until that changes, we won’t see an end to #OscarsSoWhite anytime soon.
Black performers and civil rights organizations have not been shy about noting how the academy’s membership is mostly white, male and over 50. So basically they’re saying that I don’t matter anymore. For instance, she worked on a yet-to-be-released film for which she’s supposed to receive onscreen credit as a character designer.
Some of the measures that were revealed included the increase of female and minority members within the academy by 2020.
“Tomorrow’s cover on Diversity crisis will be a must read”.
“We have this conversation every year and it p***es me off”. I’ve had enough of that in my career.
Beiman is anxious women “are going to get hit very hard” by the changes. Then they would vote to determine the five nominees.
Beiman said voting is the only privilege she enjoys.
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The 88th annual Academy Awards takes place on Sunday, February 28.
