“We’re proud to welcome these new members to the Academy, and know they view this as an opportunity and not just an invitation, a mission and not just a membership”.
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Some of the actors invited to join were among those many believed should have received acting nominations in January, including Michael B. Jordan, the breakout star of “Creed”, and Idris Elba, the critically acclaimed lead in “Beasts of No Nation”.
46% of the new recruits are people of colour, and 41% are women. And in perhaps the best news of all of the 91 new directors accepted into the Academy this year, 48 of them are women, including TMS favorites like Lexi Alexander and Patty Jenkins!
Kevin Winter/Getty Images Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards nominee luncheon on February 8, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. That’s over twice as many as a year ago, and 46 percent of the invitees are women and 41 percent are people of color.
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The academy also introduced new membership rules to help diversify its make-up by stripping some older members of voting privileges.
The organization that hands out Hollywood’s highest honors hopes to bring aboard 683 new members to improve the diversity of its ranks, nearly doubling the 2015 class following criticism of its all-white slate of Oscar acting nominees this year. If all invitees accept, membership will be bumped up to 27 percent female and 11 percent minorities.
Today’s announcement is great news for the Academy and for Hollywood at large. It includes 283 new worldwide members from 59 countries.
The effort should reportedly shift the demographics from 75% male membership to 73%. “And we want to really feel that the academy is a true representation of art at this time on this planet”.
The organisation responded by announcing a sweeping affirmative action programme, pledging to double female and minority membership by 2020.
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If all 683 invited professionals do join, the academy would have 7,789 members, it added.
