Wider change in Hollywood sought after Academy reforms

The announcement came amid a backlash over the absence of actors or filmmakers of color in this year’s Oscars nominations, prompting actor Will Smith, director Spike Lee and a handful of others to say they plan to shun the Oscars ceremony on February 28.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 51-member board of governors unanimously approved a series of reforms late Thursday to “begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition”, Isaacs said.

In addition to doubling the number of women and minorities by 2020, the previous new member lifetime voting shall be limited to ten years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade.

KEEGAN: It won’t affect the voting for this year’s Academy Awards, but it will start going into effect after that.

So, again, it is hard to feel much sympathy for many in Hollywood but imbalances need to be address so perhaps Isaacs or someone else with the authority to change the makeup of the Academy will act.

Apparently, however, academy voters were not overly impressed with the work turned in by the likes of Will Smith in “Concussion“, Michael B. Jordan in “Creed“, Samuel L. Jackson in “The Hateful Eight” and Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation“.

It’s hard for an institution to emphasize diversity and highlight minority voices when its membership has more old white men than the U.S. Congress. Of the Academy’s voting members, 93 percent are white and 76 percent are male, with the median age being 63. “The infrastructure is the problem”, said Mr Felix Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. Thanks to the last two years of nominees, the Oscars have absorbed the lion’s share of the spotlight on diversity.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a bold statement about the film industry in the announcement.

She later clarified in a statement: “I regret that my comments could have been misinterpreted“.

African-American filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who many expected to score a Best Director nomination for Selma a year ago, is also pleased with the Academy’s new position on diversity issues. It’s a strong first step.

On this Monday, African-American writer/director Spike Lee, who received an honorary Oscars last November, blamed the Academy for the lack of black nominees over the past two years and announced he refused to attend the 88th Academy Awards.

“You should expect [#OscarsSoWhite jokes]”, Hudlin said, adding “And, yes, the Academy is ready for him to do that”. They would be absolved of paying dues and, except for voting, their academy privileges will remain the same. Ken Howard, president of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing about 160,000 actors and other performers, called the changes “well intended, and I think it should be acceptable to people“.

KEEGAN: Yeah. I mean, around the newsroom, we were referring to this as the nuclear option.