Last week, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences announced its induction of 819 new members to its residing body in attempts to diversify its congregation. For those that don’t know the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is the governing body over The Oscars, casting their votes for nominations and winners during the Live Event in The Spring. The Academy is one of the most prestigious organizations in the movie industry and includes over 8,000 current members.
With an already large governing body, the announcement of its new inductees may not seem like big news, however it is. The massive list of new members directly addresses the previous claims of The Academy’s historically non-diversified body, mostly comprised of white men. However, the induction of the new 819 members helps draw attention to more representation among gender and race – the induction of the new Academy members makes up 36% people of color and 45% women.
In the past 2 years alone, The Academy has inducted 2,000+ new members to further fulfill their commitment to diversify their governing body that they announced back in 2016. Along with the release of the new names, The Academy stated that they had
“Set specific inclusion goals as part of its 2020 initiative to double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities by 2020. Through dedicated and intentional work by the Board of Governors and members on the branch executive committees, the Academy has surpassed both these goals.” - The Academy
Why does this matter? It matters because it means that The Academy is acknowledging that their presence and votes have been biased by not fully representing the larger spectrum of people. In the past few years, audiences have demanded more representation in films and we saw great strides in recent ceremonies when “Moonlight” (2017) and “Parasite” (2019) won Best Pictures. While this might be a large change, there is still room for more improvement and movement.
In other related news, due to COVID restrictions impacting 2020 and 2021 releases, The Oscars has announced that they will be pushing back their 2021 Ceremony from February to April.
It might be early, but mark your calendars for the 93rd Oscar's on April 25, 2021.
Here are the Highlights of the Newest Academy Members:
Actors
- Constance Wu
- Florence Pugh
- Lakeith Stanfield
- Cynthia Erivo
- John David Washington
- Ana De Armas
- Brian Tyree Henry
- Beanie Feldstein
- Awkwafina
- Zendaya
- Bobby Cannavale
- Olivia Wilde
- Ben Mendelsohn
- Eva Longoria
Directors
- Lulu Wang
- Ari Aster
- Terence Davies
- Matthew Vaughn
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