The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences which is responsible for the Oscars, has invited a record 683 new members into its voting ranks.
And the Academy says this year’s class is its most diverse ever — 46% female, and 41% people of color.
After two straight years when the 20 acting nominees at the Academy Awards were white performers, and the talk surrounding the event was dominated by the hashtag #oscarssowhite, the Academy pledged to diversify its membership. The goal is to double the number of women and minorities by the year 2020. And the nearly 700 people invited to join this year will take the institution a long way towards that goal.
But, unlike in past years, some of those asked to join the Academy have only a handful of film credits.
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Guests:
John Horn, host of The Frame, who talked yesterday to Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; he tweets from
Darnell Hunt, director of the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies, which puts out the annual “Hollywood Diversity Report," and chair of the Sociology Department at UCLA; he tweets from