Academy changes rules to promote Oscar diversity

Academy changes rules to promote Oscar diversity

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences announced what it referred to as “a sweeping series of substantive changes” to its rules on Friday, January 23 to promote diversity in Academy membership, TheWrap reports.

The most dramatic new rule changes what has always been the lifetime voting privilege attached to Academy membership to a 10-year term.

After 10 years, a member’s Oscar voting privileges will be renewed for another 10 years if he or she has been “active in motion pictures” during the past decade. After three consecutive terms of eligibility, the member will receive lifetime voting privileges.

The rule will not go into effect until after this year’s Oscars, but at that point it will be applied retroactively to current members.

The changes also involve “an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity,” according to an Academy press release issued on Friday. In addition, three new seats will be added to the AMPAS Board of Governors, with the members nominated by the president and approved by the board rather than being elected by the members of any specific branch.

The current Academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, is the only African-American on the 51-member board.

AMPAS also pledged to add minority members to its executive and board committees. Typically, the identity of members on those committees has been kept secret by the Academy.

The Academy’s goal, it said in the statement, is to double the number of women and diverse members of AMPAS by 2020.

The changes were adopted unanimously by the Academy’s Board of Governors at a meeting on Thursday night. The Board has a regularly scheduled meeting coming up on Tuesday, at which the diversity issue had been added to the agenda. But the Academy opted not to wait for that meeting, instead quietly scheduling a meeting on Thursday to specifically deal with the outcry over this year’s second consecutive slate of all-white acting nominees, and the ensuing backlash against the Academy.

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