For the second year in a row, not a single person of colour was nominated in any of the acting categories.
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The speed and breadth of the boards Thursday night action surprised even some Academy insiders, who at midweek were predicting no action until a regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, and who were strongly playing down any steps to trim the voting rights of older members. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three 10-year voting terms.
Beginning later in 2016, new member’s voting rights will last 10 years and be renewed only if that member has been active in film.
“Along with Boone Isaacs, the Board’s Membership and Administration Committee, chaired by Academy Governor Phil Robinson, led the efforts to enact these initiatives”. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status.
Ava DuVernay, director of last year’s best picture-nominee “Selma”, tweeted that “Shame is a helluva motivator”. The number of minorities now serving as members of the academy has not been revealed. Chaz Ebert, publisher of RogerEbert.com and wife of the late critic, said, “The academy took the first step”.
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who is African-American and has come under increasing pressure from actors and filmmakers of color, said “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up“.
What the board did not do was change any of its voting processes, such as raising the number of best picture nominees to 10 or eliminating its complex preferential ballot system, which some speculated might have hurt “Straight Outta Compton”, a popular, critically acclaimed film on the hip-hop group N.W.A that failed to secure a best picture nomination.
In its statement on Friday, the Academy said those members who are moved to emeritus status because they have not met the new activity criteria would not pay dues, but would continue to enjoy the privileges of membership other than voting.
None of these changes will affect voting for this year’s Oscars.
The Board is applying these same standards retroactively to current members.
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.
“This conversation is penetrating everywhere, and that’s the good thing”, she said.
“But we still need to put pressure on the Hollywood studio heads to make more inclusive and diverse films, because the academy can only nominate quality work that has been made”.
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This time, the academy is trying not just to reform itself, but to spur all of the movie industry to greater diversity.
