Motion Picture Academy

HBCU in LA Advocates for Diversity in Film Industry, Reminding Young Black Filmmakers of Those Who Came Before

Imani Sumbi, Contributing WriterJuly 18, 2019

For many years, Stacy Milner, former executive assistant to the chairman of NBC and then to the chairman of Paramount Pictures, has devoted herself to increasing ethnic and cultural diversity in the entertainment industry. In 2010, she founded the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program (EICOP), a recruitment initiative designed to channel students of color – primarily HBCU and Hispanic-serving institution graduates – into careers in this predominantly White field.

Op-Ed Opinion

Tackling the Academy’s Diversity Deficit With the NFL’s Playbook

Marc Morial - President & CEO, National Urban LeagueFebruary 10, 2016

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems, 1986 A lot has happened since the on and offline uproar that exploded after the Motion Picture Academy failed to nominate people of color across most major award categories for the second year in a row. Chief among the reactions has been the academy’s decision to re-examine and course correct its internal push for diversity among its well-publicized overwhelmingly older, white male ranks. Meanwhile, there have been numerous calls to register our collective