Academy embraces controversy as Oscars backlash grows
Host Chris Rock will join other celebrities in mocking and criticizing the lack of diversity among the awards’ nominees. Here’s how the organization is responding.
After a growing backlash against the lack of diversity in Hollywood, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced changes in its membership and voting rules :
We’re making changes. New Academy membership and voting diversity initiatives announced today. https://t.co/Arna4YvgY1
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 22, 2016
The Academy said its goal is to double the number of minority members (currently at 7 percent) and women (currently at 24 percent) by 2020.
On Saturday, the Academy’s president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, and its chief executive, Dawn Hudson, discussed the changes at the Producers Guild Awards.
Isaacs said the Academy has been discussing changes for years, and Hudson said its board of governors has been “impatient” to make them.
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