Oscars make changes to Academy membership rules after diversity crisis

Rather than waiting until a board meeting next week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences took dramatic action last night to approve changing membership rules in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

The Academy announced the change today. The Board of Governors took a vote last night and unanimously approved the first voting limitations for members. Previously, all members had the right to vote for the rest of their lives, but now, a member’s voting status will be assessed every 10 years. If the member is still active in the film industry, their right to vote will be renewed.

A member can gain lifetime voting status if they pass three 10-year periods and are still active or if they won or are nominated for an Oscar.

If a member does not qualify, they will be given emeritus status and will not have to pay dues. They will get the same benefits of other members, but won’t have the right to vote for the Oscars.

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

In addition to this change, the Academy will also do its best to double the number of diverse members by 2020. Three new Governors seats have been established and they will be nominated by the Academy president for three-year terms and confirmed by other Board members.

Just yesterday, the New York Times and Variety reported that changes to membership rules was one of the moves the Academy would consider to combat the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. The moment the Oscar nominations were announced, many noticed that it was the second consecutive year that no minority actors were nominated. Films with diverse casts like Straight Outta Compton and Creed were left out of the eight-movie Best Picture field.