It was reported in the pages of Crave just yesterday that The Academy was expected to make a deliberate, swift, and conscious effort to assure racial and gender diversity at the Academy Awards within the week. Over the course of the last week, since the Oscar nominations were announced early Thursday morning, many have noticed the overwhelming presence of white people in all 20 of the acting categories, and a general dearth of minorities in general. Many Academy members – including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Spike Lee, and others – have announced that they will not be attending this year’s awards’ ceremony as a result of the Academy’s seeming rejection of performers and filmmakers of color.
Check Out: The Academy Is Expected to Make Changes to Ensure Oscar Diversity
According to Advertising Age, The Academy was very quick to rectify the situation. In an e-mail released by the organization, it was announced that The Academy intends to double its number of minority and female members by the year 2020.
There is also a newly enacted legislation that would bar inactive members from voting, all in the hopes that elderly members of the Academy can no longer dictate nominees. Starting this year, every member of the Academy will only remain a member for as long as they’re actively making films, plus ten years. All Oscar winners, nominees, and 30-year members will be granted lifetime voting status.
Will this work to increase diversity? Time will tell. As for now, at least steps have been taken.
Top Image: Bloomberg News
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
