Oscars not quite so white: film academy offers membership to its largest, most diverse group ever
One of the most exclusive clubs in the world just got a whole lot bigger.
In the latest and most dramatic step by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to diversify the overwhelmingly white and male institution, 683 industry professionals were invited Wednesday to join the nearly 90-year-old organisation.
The group of invitees, which included Idris Elba, Brie Larson, John Boyega, America Ferrera, Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman, was touted as the academy’s largest and most diverse new class ever, more than double the 322 members invited last year.
The academy’s expansion is part of a diversity push that took on heightened urgency this year in the #OscarsSoWhite uproar, which reached a fever pitch in the run-up to this year’s awards telecast.
In an interview following Wednesday’s announcement, Boone Isaacs said that the large and diverse class is the result a concerted campaign to show that the academy is opening its arms to groups that have been underrepresented.
“What we found is that, as much we tried to get the information out there, it wasn’t penetrating in a way that we wanted it to,” Boone Isaacs said. “So we’ve asked all our members to be the ambassadors and pay attention to men and women who have particular skill levels in their area of expertise and get them encouraged and tell us their names so that we can make sure to reach out and connect.”
According to the academy’s figures, the new class is 46 per cent female, bringing the representation of women in the organisation from 25 per cent to 27 per cent. Forty-one per cent of the invitees are people of colour, bringing minorities’ share of total academy membership from 8 per cent to 11 per cent.
Other names on the list include actors Emma Watson, Tina Fey, Oscar Isaac, Tom Hiddleston and Ice Cube and directors Ryan Coogler, Julie Dash, Adam McKay and Patty Jenkins.
If all of the 2016 invitees accept their invitations, the total membership of the academy will reach 7,789.
To help broaden the pool of possible candidates, the academy supplemented its traditional membership process with a global recruitment campaign. The academy says the new class includes 283 international members from 59 countries.
The academy’s diversity push has itself been met with controversy among some who feel older members have been unfairly tarred with the brush of racism. But academy member Laura Karpman called the new membership class a welcome “sea change” for the institution.
“I am sitting here weeping,” Karpman, a composer and member of the music branch, said. “I am so moved by this. For the music branch in particular, it is a historic day.” The branch, which has been overwhelmingly white and male, invited 26 new members Wednesday: 12 of them women, 10 people of colour.
Although the academy’s move on Wednesday represented a significant step toward meeting its diversity goals, reaching its ultimate targets may not be easy, given the historical under-representation of women and minorities in Hollywood. In 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that Oscar voters were 94 per cent white and 77 per cent male, and by this year those numbers had budged only slightly.
April Reign, creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that first spread virally on social media in 2015, said that although she’s heartened by the new invitees, it’s just a first step.
“Work still needs to be done,” Reign said Wednesday. “#OscarsSoWhite shone a light on what already existed. Unfortunately, it appears they’re being reactionary instead of proactive. So whether they bit off more than they can chew remains to be seen.”
To hit its goals, the academy would have to invite at least 375 women and more than 130 people of colour each year for the next four years.
