The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced new voting measures for the Oscars in response to protests over the award’s lily-white slate of best acting award nominees. Celebrities like Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee said they would boycott the awards show this year while the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite have brought the systemic racial discrimination of the film industry into sharp focus. Part of the problem with the Oscars is that the group of film industry professionals who vote on the awards is made up overwhelmingly of older, white men. A 2012 investigation by the LA Times found that the Academy was 77 percent male, 94 percent white, and has a median age of 62.
The new voting rules are aimed at diversifying the Academy by seeking new members and making lifetime membership more difficult. From the Academy’s official statement:
Each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. At the same time, the Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.
On Twitter, filmmaker Ava Duvernay called the change “one good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color + women artists.” But, she added, it’s a little late. “Marginalized artists have advocated for Academy change for DECADES. Actual campaigns. Calls voiced FROM THE STAGE. Deaf ears. Clòsed minds.”
Image: The nominees for this year’s best leading actor award.
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With production masterminds like Ava Duvernay of Selma and Moira Walley-Beckett of Breaking Bad in the queue, the face of television could undergo a transformation as beautiful as autumn leaves.
Read more to find out which new fall TV shows are top-rated for feminist potential.
Source: aauw.org