The Academy of Motion Pictures Invites New Members to Increase Diversity

Source: oscars.org

The Academy of Motion Pictures is taking its first major step to increase its diversity and representation by inviting 638 new members into its ranks.

Invitations were sent out to new members on June 29. Of the new invitees, 46 percent of them are women and 41 percent of them are people of color.

New members to the Academy include winners from this year’s class including Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander. Emma Watson, Idris Elba, and John Boyega were also invited into the Academy.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “the class of 2016 includes 28 Oscar winners and 98 nominees, who collectively represent 109 nominations. Of the new invitees, 283 are considered international members, representing 59 countries.”

The change and increase of new members comes after the Academy was heavily criticized for their lack of diversity of nominees in all the major categories this past year. The lack of diversity caused many actors and actresses to speak out against the Academy and caused the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to trend across various social media platforms.

At the beginning of this past voting season, the members were 92 percent white and 75 percent male. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the current president of the Academy, hopes to increase the Academy’s number of women and diverse members by 2020.

See a full list of new member here.