Oscars may never be the same after first open elections to academy board

The election is around the corner, and just about everywhere you go in Los Angeles, you’ll find pockets of disaffected voters angry that their representatives aren’t listening to them.

Only the names on this ballot aren’t Trump and Clinton. Instead, they’re Spielberg and Babyface.

Four months after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences enacted sweeping, controversial changes to its membership, the organisation is having its first open election for its board of governors, and the results could affect everything from the makeup of Oscar categories to the makeup of the academy itself.

Before this year, candidates for the governors board had to be vetted by a committee to run. The academy’s changes now allow members to start a campaign with a mere mouse click, leading to a crush of contenders across its 17 branches.

Twelve directors, including Steven Spielberg, are running for incumbent Kathryn Bigelow’s spot in that branch. Thirty-two visual effects artists are vying for a seat, as are 21 musicians (including Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, producer of the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack) and 40 members of the public relations branch.