The meeting was a routine one, scheduled much before the controversy over the 2016 nominations broke, but the issue of diversity took centre stage as a result of the same.
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With the growing uproar over the lack of diversity at the Oscars this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was forced to announce sweeping changes in the nomination process.
By doubling the number of women and minorities, the board hopes that women will make up 48 percent and diverse groups more than 14 percent of the academy membership.
“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up”, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the Academy president said in a statement. The session ended with a unanimous vote to endorse the new processes, but action on possible changes to Oscar balloting was deferred for later consideration.
Under the new rules, lifetime voting rights would be conferred only on those academy members who remain active in the film industry over the course of three 10-year terms or who have won or been nominated for an Oscar. Only its longest-serving members and those who have previously been nominated for an Oscar will still be able to vote.
Members can still score lifetime voting rights, but only once they qualify for three 10-year terms or if they’re nominated for an award.
The Academy’s Board has approved substantive changes created to make its membership, governing bodies, and voting members significantly more diverse.
The new rules, which will be applied retroactively to current members, may alter what critics have described as the insidery nature of gaining membership. “This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders”, according to the Academy.
The Academy now has 6,261 voting members, all of whom work in the film industry. Many here in Hollywood have been surprised by how quickly she is turning that determination into action.
The Academy also plans to add members who do not serve on the Board of Governors to its executive and board committees.
“My wife and I will be in my courtside seats”, he said.
“One good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color + women artists”, she wrote on Twitter in a message attached to an official letter sent to her from members of the Academy.
Not a single male or female nominee running for the main acting prizes is black or from minority backgrounds.
While the Academy is promising to double the number of women and minorities in the organization by 2020, to date, it has not revealed exactly how many women and minorities now are in its membership ranks.
The changes came after a firestorm of criticism following the latest crop of Oscar nominees announced last week. 40 white actors in 2 years and no flava at all.
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, DuVernay, David Oyelowo, George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Viola Davis and Mark Ruffalo are some of the celebrities who have criticised the Academy and Hollywood studios for ignoring non-white talent.
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Asked whether he thought there were any viable contenders for the awards from ethnic minority backgrounds, he said that actors in films such as Straight Outta Compton and Creed deserved recognition, adding that Concussion starring Will Smith and Beasts of No Nation featuring Idris Elba were “Oscar-worthy” movies.
