Academy invites new members, achieves gender parity in 2019

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oscars, gender parity, invites, members, women, people of colour.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their class of 842 new members from different countries. The group announced that half of the members invited to join the Academy are women.

The organisation also disclosed that 29 per cent of the new invitees are people of colour. If those people accept the invites, the Academy will have double the percentage of non-white people in their ranks in four years, reported Variety.

In 2015, people of colour accounted for only 8 percent of the total body of the organisation. In 2019, it stands at 16 per cent.

New members include ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ fame director Jon Chu, actors Winston Duke and Gemma Chan, and screenwriters Chinonye Chukwu, Park Young-soo and Ryo Sakaguchi.

The Academy came under fire in 2016 following the viral social media campaign #OscarsSoWhite, which criticised the uniform race of many top nominees.

Ten of the 17 Academy arms invited more women than men, including directors, writers, executives, makeup and hair, costume design and casting. New members added to the director’s branch include Nisha Ganatra, Jennifer Kent, Melanie Laurent, and Eva Husson.

New members in the acting branch include Lady Gaga, after her commendable performance in ‘A Star Is Born, Tom Holland, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jamie Bell, Sterling K. Brown, Marina De Tavira, Claire Foy, Damian Lewis, Archie Panjabi, Amanda Peet, Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter, and Letitia Wright.

Annie Lennox and Adele are among the 28 composers, songwriters and music editors invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year.

Three other Oscar winners are on this year’s list – ‘Black Panther’ composer Ludwig Goransson and Gaga’s ‘Shallow’ co-writers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. Two other nominees from last year’s movies were added this year – ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ songwriter Scott Wittman and ‘A Star Is Born’ music editor Jason Ruder.

Other composers include Michael Abels, Nathan Barr, Kris Bowers, Jane Antonia Cornish, Annette Focks, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Hildur Guonadottir, Jed Kurzel, and Anne Nikitin, among several others.

After all the invitations are accepted, the organisation will host a mixer in the fall.

The 2019 Oscars saw an encouraging amount of diverse winners, including landmark wins for celebrities like Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter (both for ‘Black Panther’), as well as supporting acting awards for Regina King (‘If Beale Street Could Talk’) and second-time winner Mahershala Ali (‘Green Book’).

American film director Spike Lee took best-adapted screenplay for ‘BlacKkKlansman’ with his co-writer Kevin Willmott. Alfonso Curaon swept several categories for his semi-autobiographical ‘Roma’.