Support NeoGAF

[ashecitism]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-et-mn-academy-voting-diversity-20160120-story.html

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will weigh new rules intended to encourage more diversity among its membership and its nominations, The Times has learned.

The academy's 51-member Board of Governors has added the diversity issue to the agenda for its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night in response to an outcry over an all-white slate of acting nominees for the second year in a row, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Among the options the board could choose are expanding the number of films in the best picture category to 10 every year, expanding the number of acting nominees in each category and changing the way the academy invites new members by allowing prospective members to put themselves forward, rather than waiting to be asked.

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs issued a statement Monday night promising that the organization was making "big changes" and taking "dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership."

Her statement followed pledges by director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith to stay home from the Oscar telecast on Feb. 28, and calls for a boycott of the show online.

For the last three years, the awards body has been in the midst of a push for more diversity, inviting larger and demographically broader groups to join its 6,261 voting members, and in November, Boone Isaacs announced a new initiative, called A2020, intended to diversify the staff of the organization. But given the size of the academy, and the fact that members belong for life, any change to the organization's overall demographics has been incremental.

Another change the board could make at Tuesday's meeting would be to cull its rolls of members who haven't actively worked in the film industry for a period of several years.

 

[Fuchsdh]

I'm impressed they're actually considering anything, so that's progress of a sort.

Among the options the board could choose are expanding the number of films in the best picture category to 10 every year, expanding the number of acting nominees in each category and changing the way the academy invites new members by allowing prospective members to put themselves forward, rather than waiting to be asked.

The last option seems like the biggest possible change that would have a positive effect. I don't think expanding the number of films or nominees really addresses the fundamental issue that the old guys aren't likely to have seen a lot of the films people have been venting about being snubbed.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Aka oh crap influential people are backing out and this is turning into a PR nightmare.

 

[Tagyhag]

How about they actually change Hollywood's unwillingness to diversify instead?

 

[Ridley327]

The maximum number of Best Picture nominees is already set at 10, so I'm guessing that they mean that they're going to try to put that back as a minimum, as it was for the first couple of years that the expansion took place.

I really do hope that the acting expansions go through, though.

 

[WyndhamPrice]

I'm going to predict that they go back to a fixed slate of 10 nominees and allow applications for membership.

How about they actually change Hollywood's unwillingness to diversify instead?

That's not a problem for AMPAS to solve. Studios and talent agencies will change that.

 

[Marion Cobretti]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading that the academy consist almost entirely of gay men over the age of 50.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Nvm.

 

[Come to Butt-Head]

How about they actually change Hollywood's unwillingness to diversify instead?

Star Wars having a female and black lead is definitely a decent start.

 

[Meowster]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading that the academy consist almost entirely of gay men over the age of 50.

Not true at all. They can be quite homophobic at times. But they are mostly made up of men over 60.