Academy President Boone-Isaacs Leads Diversity Push

Film academy invites 683 new members to join

Six months after announcing intentions to double the number of female and minority members in its ranks by 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 683 new members to join the organization.

The academy says its invitees are 46 percent female, 41 percent minority and represent 59 countries.

Should all of the invitees accept, the new class would make the academy’s overall membership 27 percent female and 11 percent non-white, up from 25 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Idris Elba, Chadwick Boseman, Eva Mendes, America Ferrera and Anika Noni Rose are among the actors invited to membership. Others include Anthony Anderson (“The Departed,” “Hustle & Flow” ), Morris Chestnut (“G.I. Jane,” “Boyz N the Hood”), O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson*- “Ride Along,” “Friday”, Michael B. Jordan- “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station” and Fitzgerald Diggs, better known RZA from Wu Tang Clan.

The 2016 group of invitees is the academy’s largest ever and more than doubles last year’s class, said President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

She said the academy has worked for several years to diversify its largely white, male membership. Last year’s #OscarsSoWhite movement amplified that conversation.

The academy announced sweeping changes to its recruitment and voting practices in January after a second straight year of all-white acting nominees for the Academy Awards.

In March, the organization added three new members including director Reginald Hudlin, to its board of governors and appointed six minority members to other leadership positions.

“I think because the conversation has truly exploded that we were able to have the size and the diversity of talent increase even more for 2016,” Boone Isaacs said in an interview Wednesday.

“We have recognized diverse talent throughout our history,” she said. “What is of-the-now is how expansive and diverse our industry has become.”

She said academy members have been energized by the mandate to bring emerging or overlooked talents into their ranks.

“It’s been like a charge of electricity,” she said.

Members of the NAACP also lauded the move, giving it a thumbs up via a recently released statement.

“The progress that is being made by AMPAS is certainly going in a very positive direction with more that can be done,” NAACP national board of directors Chairman Roslyn M. Brock said.

“In that regard, the NAACP has ideas that we believe could further enhance what you are currently doing. We would welcome the opportunity to share our ideas with you. We believe the NAACP and AMPAS can play an important and lasting leadership role in making your overall initiative a model for the entertainment industry.”

Two-time Oscar nominee Laura Dern has felt that energy in the actors branch.

“It is the membership saying we want to support fellow artists,” Dern said Wednesday. “And we want to really feel that the academy is a true representation of art at this time on this planet.”

Just as moviegoers and Oscar watchers are demanding more diversity on screen, Dern says the academy is seeking to be more inclusive and expansive in its search for excellence.

“As history continues to prove to us, we always seem to benefit when you question,” she said. “It’s an artist’s job to question, to consider and to figure out how to expand and grow. So we have to take that to heart and ask ourselves and each other how we can continue to grow and represent art in the best possible way.

Actors

1. Mahershala Ali- “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Parts 1 and 2),” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
2. Anthony Anderson- “The Departed,” “Hustle & Flow”
3. Chadwick Boseman – “Captain America: Civil War,” “Get on Up”
4. Morris Chestnut- “G.I. Jane,” “Boyz N the Hood”
5. Loretta Devine- “Crash,” “I Am Sam”
6. Idris Elba- “Beasts of No Nation,” “Pacific Rim”
7. Carmen Ejogo- “Selma,” “Sparkle”
8. Vivica A. Fox- “Kill Bill,” “Independence Day”
9. Dennis Haysbert- “Dear White People,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
10. O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson*- “Ride Along,” “Friday”
11. Michael B. Jordan- “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”
12. Regina King- “Ray,” “Jerry Maguire”
13. Nia Long- “Keanu,” “Boyz N the Hood”
14. Nate Parker- “Beyond the Lights,” “Red Tails”
15. Anika Noni Rose- “For Colored Girls,” “Dreamgirls”
16. Tessa Thompson- “Creed,” “Dear White People”
17. Lorraine Toussaint- “Selma,” “Middle of Nowhere”
18. Glynn Turman- “Super 8,” “Men of Honor”
19. Gabrielle Union- “Top Five,” “Bad Boys II”
20. Damon Wayans, Jr.- “Big Hero 6,” “Let’s Be Cops”
21. Marlon Wayans- “The Heat,” “Requiem for a Dream”

Writers/ Producers

1. Amma Asante- “Belle,” “A Way of Life”
2. Ryan Coogler*- “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”
3. Cheryl Dunye- “My Baby’s Daddy,” “The Watermelon Woman”
4. Sanaa Hamri- “Just Wright,” “Something New”
5. Albert Hughes- “The Book of Eli,” “Dead Presidents”
6. Melvin Van Peebles- “Identity Crisis,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song”
7. Keenan Ivory Wayans*- “Scary Movie,” “A Low Down Dirty Shame”
8. Laurens Grant- “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” “Freedom Riders”
9. Shola Lynch- “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners,” “Chisholm ’72 – Unbought & Unbossed”
10. Louis Massiah- “W.E.B. Dubois: A Biography in Four Voices”