The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, organiser of the Oscar awards, has pledged to double its membership of women and minorities by 2020. It said it would do this through an ambitious affirmative action plan that includes stripping some older members of voting privileges.
The announcement came amid recent backlash over the absence of actors or filmmakers of colour in this year’s Oscars nominations. This prompted actor Will Smith, director Spike Lee and a handful of others to say they plan to shun the Oscars ceremony on Feb. 28.
The membership rule changes, among the most sweeping in the academy’s 88-year-old history, were unanimously adopted by the organisation’s Board of Governors, the group said in a statement. But the reforms would not affect voting for this year’s Academy Awards.
A lack of diversity within the academy, whose ranks consist mostly of older, white men, has long been cited as a barrier to racial inclusion in Hollywood’s highest honours.
But many critics point to the scarcity of opportunities for minorities and women on either side of the camera in a film industry that largely relegates them to marginal or stereotyped roles.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who became the first African-American to assume the organisation’s top post in the summer of 2013, has commended the move.
Isaac said that it was a demonstration that the academy “is ready to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up.” However, Ava DuVernay, who became the first black filmmaker to earn a Golden Globe bid for her Oscar-nominated civil rights drama “Selma” last year, said the academy’s action was a long time in coming and taken only under duress.
