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Academy Awards overhauls membership policy

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By Doug Zanger, Americas Editor

January 22, 2016 | 2 min read

In a move to address the lack of race and gender diversity among their voting members, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board overwhelmingly voted to take steps to make membership, policies and voting members “significantly” more diverse, according to a press release and ABC News.

For the second year in a row, Oscar nominees in the top four categories, were only white actors, prompting the comeback of #OscarsSoWhite and a slew of boycotts and controversy. Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Spike Lee and others have boycotted the ceremony, while Charlotte Rampling, nominated for the best actress award, further fanned the flames of controversy in a French radio interview by claiming the row is “racist to white people.”

The Academy voting membership, according to an LA Times study in 2012, is 94 per cent Caucasian and 77 per cent male. Black and Latino voting members are two and less and two percent of the voting membership, respectively. Additionally, the study noted that the median age of voters is 62.

According to ABC News, the goal is to double the number of women and diverse members by 2020.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”

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