• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Film Academy Invites a Record 683 New Members: 46% Female and 41% People of Color

Status
Not open for further replies.

Prompto

Banned
Academy%20Class.jpg


As part of its effort to increase diversity among its ranks, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday issued a record 683 invitations to new members — from rising stars like Star Wars' John Boyega and Harry Potter's Emma Watson to musicians like Mary J. Blige and Will.i.am to internationally recognized directors like Great Britain's Ken Loach and Iran's Abbas Kiarostami.

The new invitees are heavily weighted to favor women (46 percent) and people of color (41 percent). If all elect to join, it will begin to shift the demographic makeup of the Academy, which has been criticized in the past for being too old, too male and too white. According to the Academy, its membership was 75 percent male before this year's new members were recruited, and could move to 73 percent male once they join. Similarly, the Academy was 92 percent white before the latest list and could become 89 percent white in its wake.

Recent Oscar winners who were tapped include Brie Larson, best actress winner for Room; Alicia Vikander, best supporting actress winner for The Danish Girl; Mark Rylance, best supporting actor winner for Bridge of Spies; producer Michael Sugar, best picture winner for Spotlight; Laszlo Nemes, director of best foreign-language film Son of Saul; and Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, winners for best adapted screenplay for The Big Short.

Several names who were overlooked in the last round of Oscar nominations made the cut — like Beasts of No Nation's Idris Elba (actors) and Cari Fukunaga (directors) and Creed star Michael B. Jordan. And Nate Parker, who directed and stars in The Birth of a Nation, which caused a sensation at Sundance and is expected to figure in the upcoming awards conversation, was also invited to join the actors branch.

More at the link including the full list of all the new members.

Here's just the list of the actors who were invited to be part of the Academy

Mahershala Ali –““The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Parts 1 and 2),” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Anthony Anderson – “The Departed,” “Hustle & Flow”
Adam Beach – “The Departed,” “Hustle & Flow”
Kate Beckinsale -– “Love & Friendship,” “The Aviator”
Chadwick Boseman -– “Captain America: Civil War,” “Get on Up”
John Boyega – “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Attack the Block”
Betty Buckley ­– “Wyatt Earp,” “Carrie”
Rose Byrne – “X-Men: First Class,” “Bridesmaids”
Julie Carmen – “The Milagro Beanfield War,” “Gloria”
Enrique Castillo­ – “Déjà Vu,” “Bound by Honor”
Morris Chestnut – “G.I. Jane,” “Boyz N the Hood”
Cliff Curtis – “Live Free or Die Hard,” “Training Day”
Idris Elba – “Beasts of No Nation,” “Pacific Rim
America Ferrera – “Cesar Chavez,” “End of Watch”
Vivica A. Fox – “Kill Bill,” “Independence Day”
Andrew Garfield – “99 Homes,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”
Greta Gerwig – “Frances Ha,” “To Rome with Love”
Jesse D. Goins – “The Ugly Truth,” “Patriot Games”
Bruce Greenwood – “Flight,” “Star Trek”
Carla Gugino – “Watchmen,” “Night at the Museum”
Luis Guzmán – “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Carlito’s Way”
Dennis Haysbert – “Dear White People,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
Tom Hiddleston – “Crimson Peak,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
James Hong – “Safe,” “Mulan”
Oscar Isaac – “Ex Machina,” “A Most Violent Year”
O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson* – “Ride Along,” “Friday”
Dakota Johnson – “Black Mass,” “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Cherry Jones – “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” “Signs”
Michael B. Jordan – “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”
Daniel Dae Kim – “The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” “Crash”
Regina King – “Ray,” “Jerry Maguire
Brie Larson – “Room,” “Trainwreck”
Byung-Hun Lee – “Terminator Genisys,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
Nia Long – “Keanu,” “Boyz N the Hood”
Sal Lopez – “The Astronaut Farmer,” “Full Metal Jacket”
Ignacio López Tarso – “Under the Volcano,” “Nazarin”
Patti LuPone – “Parker,” “Driving Miss Daisy”
Peter Mackenzie – “Trumbo,” “42”
Rachel McAdams – “Spotlight,” “Midnight in Paris”
Eva Mendes – “The Place beyond the Pines,” “Hitch”
Tatsuya Nakadai – “Ran,” “Kagemusha”
Adepero Oduye – “The Big Short,” “12 Years a Slave”
Marisa Paredes – “The Skin I Live In,” “All about My Mother”
Nate Parker – “Beyond the Lights,” “Red Tails”
Harold Perrineau – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “28 Weeks Later”
Jorge Perugorría – “Che,” “Strawberry and Chocolate”
Silvia Pinal – “Vintage Model,” “The Exterminating Angel”
Freida Pinto – “Immortals,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Michelle Rodriguez – “Avatar,” “Girlfight”
Anika Noni Rose – “For Colored Girls,” “Dreamgirls”
Cecilia Roth – “Lucia Lucia,” “All About My Mother”
Mark Rylance – “Bridge of Spies,” “The Other Boleyn Girl”
Pepe Serna – “The Black Dahlia,” “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez”
Martin Starr – “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Adventureland”
Elizabeth Sung – “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Joy Luck Club”
Sharmila Tagore – “Dhadkan,” “The World of Apu”
Tessa Thompson – “Creed,” “Dear White People”
Lorraine Toussaint – “Selma,” “Middle of Nowhere”
Glynn Turman – “Super 8,” “Men of Honor”
Gabrielle Union – “Top Five,” “Bad Boys II”
Jacob Vargas – “The 33,” “Jarhead”
Alicia Vikander – “The Danish Girl,” “Ex Machina”
Emma Watson – “The Bling Ring,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Damon Wayans, Jr. – “Big Hero 6,” “Let’s Be Cops”
Marlon Wayans – “The Heat,” “Requiem for a Dream”
Rita Wilson – “It’s Complicated,” “Runaway Bride”
Daphne Zuniga – “Staying Together,” “Spaceballs”
 

Esiquio

Member
"Person of Color" sounds more like a racial slur to me than just saying the specific country or region, I can't see myself ever using it. I know there are those on GAF who feel the same - it's use is a bit strange to me.

Awesome that the Academy is inviting a large number of new people into it to - no statistics released of Asian and Hispanic people though, I see. I also don't understand why some find fault with a 75% white person representation since that matches up with the demographic percentage of white people in the United States. I mean, wouldn't a country with an equal number of people from backgrounds, represented equally and proportionately, make sense? 75% MEN, rather than 50/50 with women, seems more troublesome to me than something that matches up mathematically.

A focus on BETTER QUALITY, non-stereotype roles for people of other races would be a lot better than just featuring more in stereotypical or shitty roles. Creed was an awesome movie with a black lead, Michelle Rodriguez is pretty cool but some of her roles are...less than she be given, range-wise.
 
"Person of Color" sounds more like a racial slur to me than just saying the specific country or region, I can't see myself ever using it. I know there are those on GAF who feel the same - it's use is a bit strange to me.

Awesome that the Academy is inviting a large number of new people into it to - no statistics released of Asian and Hispanic people though, I see. I also don't understand why some find fault with a 75% white person representation since that matches up with the demographic percentage of white people in the United States. I mean, wouldn't a country with an equal number of people from backgrounds, represented equally and proportionately, make sense? 75% MEN, rather than 50/50 with women, seems more troublesome to me than something that matches up mathematically.

A focus on BETTER QUALITY, non-stereotype roles for people of other races would be a lot better than just featuring more in stereotypical or shitty roles. Creed was an awesome movie with a black lead, Michelle Rodriguez is pretty cool but some of her roles are...less than she be given, range-wise.

You sound white to me.
 

Lord Fagan

Junior Member
Ours is an age of transformation. I feel lucky to witness these small but significant steps towards a better form of humanity.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Did they finally invite some fucking fans of animation as well? A film like Princess Kaguya shouldn't lose to fucking Big Hero 6!
 
Looking at this list it's shocking that alot of these people weren't already in it.

"Person of Color" sounds more like a racial slur to me than just saying the specific country or region, I can't see myself ever using it. I know there are those on GAF who feel the same - it's use is a bit strange to me.

Awesome that the Academy is inviting a large number of new people into it to - no statistics released of Asian and Hispanic people though, I see. I also don't understand why some find fault with a 75% white person representation since that matches up with the demographic percentage of white people in the United States. I mean, wouldn't a country with an equal number of people from backgrounds, represented equally and proportionately, make sense? 75% MEN, rather than 50/50 with women, seems more troublesome to me than something that matches up mathematically.

A focus on BETTER QUALITY, non-stereotype roles for people of other races would be a lot better than just featuring more in stereotypical or shitty roles. Creed was an awesome movie with a black lead, Michelle Rodriguez is pretty cool but some of her roles are...less than she be given, range-wise.

The white representation wasn't 75% it was 92% prior to this. Also why are you using the US' demographics as a metric? The oscars/acadamy are an international organization and a lot of its members aren't US nationals. So if you want to do a proper ratio to population you should be using the entire planet's population but you won't do that because it'll show that the Acadamys are extremely white by that comparison.
 

Blader

Member
Awesome that the Academy is inviting a large number of new people into it to - no statistics released of Asian and Hispanic people though, I see. I also don't understand why some find fault with a 75% white person representation since that matches up with the demographic percentage of white people in the United States. I mean, wouldn't a country with an equal number of people from backgrounds, represented equally and proportionately, make sense? 75% MEN, rather than 50/50 with women, seems more troublesome to me than something that matches up mathematically.

Academy members are not your elected representatives.
 

Prompto

Banned
Did they finally invite some fucking fans of animation as well? A film like Princess Kaguya shouldn't lose to fucking Big Hero 6!
They invited a ton of people who work in animation though it looks like most of them have mainly worked on large budget animated films like Big Hero 6.
 

Esiquio

Member
Looking at this list it's shocking that alot of these people weren't already in it.



The white representation wasn't 75% it was 92% prior to this. Also why are you using the US' demographics as a metric? The oscars/acadamy are an international organization and a lot of its members aren't US nationals. So if you want to do a proper ratio to population you should be using the entire planets population but you won't do that because it'll show that the Acadamys are extremely white by that comparison.

I agree that a lot of these people should have already been on the list. Looking at the website and the history of the Academy, it was started in the United States and isn't an international organization. From Wikipedia:

Wikipedia said:
After their brief meeting, Mayer gathered up a group of thirty-six people involved in the film industry and invited them to a formal banquet at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on January 11, 1927. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy.Between that evening and when the official Articles of Incorporation for the organization were filed on May 4, 1927, the "International" was dropped from the name, becoming the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences".

92% prior to this sounds definitely way off, glad that was moved in the right direction with this roster!
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
They invited a ton of people who work in animation though it looks like most of them have mainly worked on large budget animated films like Big Hero 6.

I'll take it honestly, at least they appreciate and be better judges of the field of animation unlike the original fucking Oscar voters. What a bunch of shit birds.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/award-season-focus/proof-that-oscar-voters-are-clueless-about-animation-109456.html

Voter #5: I only watch the ones that my kid wants to see, so I didn’t see [The] Boxtrolls but I saw Big Hero 6 and I saw [How to Train Your] Dragon [2]. We both connected to Big Hero 6 — I just found it to be more satisfying. The biggest snub for me was Chris Miller and Phil Lord not getting in for [The] Lego [Movie]. When a movie is that successful and culturally hits all the right chords and does that kind of box-office — for that movie not to be in over these two obscure freakin’ Chinese fuckin’ things that nobody ever freakin’ saw [an apparent reference to the Japanese film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, as well as the Irish film Song of the Sea]? That is my biggest bitch. Most people didn’t even know what they were! How does that happen? That, to me, is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
MY VOTE: Big Hero 6
 
I agree that a lot of these people should have already been on the list. Looking at the website and the history of the Academy, it was started in the United States and isn't an international organization. From Wikipedia:



92% prior to this sounds definitely way off, glad that was moved in the right direction with this roster!

Membership wise it was. A fuck ton of it's members aren't from the US and come from places like the UK, Europe, Asia, etc... also the Oscars also recognizes and gives out awards for foreign films.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom