The Academy invites largest, most diverse class of new members ever

[satam55]

41 percent of the invitees are people of color; 46 percent are women

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the largest and most diverse class of new members in its 89-year history, with John Boyega, Eva Mendes, Oscar Isaac, Emma Watson, James Wan, and Lana and Lilly Wachowski among the 683 invitees.

The group underscores the academy’s ongoing efforts to broaden its ranks — which have historically been overwhelmingly white, male, and older — in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that erupted earlier this year when no actors of color were nominated for Oscars (for the second year in a row). The controversy prompted the academy to drastically overhaul its membership rules and goals.

The new class is more than double last year’s 322 invitees, and the academy highlighted the group’s diversity in an announcement Wednesday. Forty-six percent of the new members are female, and 41 percent are people of color. Those numbers are enough to bring the overall makeup of the 7,000-plus-member organization up to 27 percent female (from 25 percent) and 11 percent people of color (from 8 percent).

The new class also includes 283 international members from 59 countries, while the group’s ages range from 24 to 91.

Other invitees include actors Brie Larson, Idris Elba, Carmen Ejogo, America Ferrera, Freida Pinto, and Michael B. Jordan; writers Tina Fey, Abi Morgan, Takeshi Kitano, and O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson (also invited as an actor); and directors Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ryan Coogler (also selected as a writer), Lexi Alexander, Xavier Dolan, and Ana Lily Amirpour. Individuals invited to multiple branches, as in the case of Coogler and Jackson, must choose one group upon accepting their membership.

“This class continues our long-term commitment to welcoming extraordinary talent reflective of those working in film today,” Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in the announcement. “We encourage the larger creative community to open its doors wider, and create opportunities for anyone interested in working in this incredible and storied industry.”

The 2016 invitees are:

Actors
Mahershala Ali — The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Parts 1 and 2),The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Anthony Anderson — The Departed,Hustle & Flow
Adam Beach — Suicide Squad,Flags of Our Fathers
Kate Beckinsale — Love & Friendship,The Aviator
Chadwick Boseman — Captain America: Civil War,Get on Up
John Boyega — Star Wars: The Force Awakens,Attack the Block
Betty Buckley — Wyatt Earp,Carrie
Rose Byrne — X-Men: First Class,Bridesmaids
Julie Carmen — The Milagro Beanfield War,Gloria
Enrique Castillo — Déjà Vu,Bound by Honor
Morris Chestnut — G.I. Jane,Boyz N the Hood
Cliff Curtis — Live Free or Die Hard,Training Day
Loretta Devine — Crash,I Am Sam
Carmen Ejogo — Selma,Sparkle
Idris Elba — Beasts of No Nation,Pacific Rim
America Ferrera — Cesar Chavez,End of Watch
Vivica A. Fox — Kill Bill,Independence Day
Andrew Garfield — 99 Homes,The Amazing Spider-Man
Greta Gerwig — Frances Ha,To Rome with Love
Jesse D. Goins — The Ugly Truth,Patriot Games
Bruce Greenwood — Flight,Star Trek
Carla Gugino — Watchmen,Night at the Museum
Luis Guzmán — Punch-Drunk Love,Carlito’s Way
Dennis Haysbert — Dear White People,Wreck-It Ralph
Tom Hiddleston — Crimson Peak,Marvel’s The Avengers
James Hong — Safe,Mulan
Oscar Isaac — Ex Machina,A Most Violent Year
O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson* — Ride Along,Friday
Dakota Johnson — Black Mass,Fifty Shades of Grey
Cherry Jones — Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,Signs
Michael B. Jordan — Creed,Fruitvale Station
Daniel Dae Kim — The Divergent Series: Insurgent,Crash
Regina King — Ray,Jerry Maguire
Brie Larson — Room,Trainwreck
Byung-Hun Lee — Terminator Genisys,G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Nia Long — Keanu,Boyz N the Hood
Sal Lopez — The Astronaut Farmer,Full Metal Jacket
Ignacio López Tarso — Under the Volcano,Nazarin
Patti LuPone — Parker,Driving Miss Daisy
Peter Mackenzie — Trumbo,42
Rachel McAdams — Spotlight,Midnight in Paris
Eva Mendes — The Place beyond the Pines,Hitch
Tatsuya Nakadai — Ran,Kagemusha
Adepero Oduye — The Big Short,12 Years a Slave
Marisa Paredes — The Skin I Live In,All about My Mother
Nate Parker — Beyond the Lights,Red Tails
Harold Perrineau — Zero Dark Thirty,28 Weeks Later
Jorge Perugorría — Che,Strawberry and Chocolate
Silvia Pinal — Vintage Model,The Exterminating Angel
Freida Pinto — Immortals,Slumdog Millionaire
Michelle Rodriguez — Avatar,Girlfight
Anika Noni Rose — For Colored Girls,Dreamgirls
Cecilia Roth — Lucia Lucia,All about My Mother
Mark Rylance — Bridge of Spies,The Other Boleyn Girl
Pepe Serna — The Black Dahlia,The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Martin Starr — I’ll See You in My Dreams,Adventureland
Elizabeth Sung — Memoirs of a Geisha,The Joy Luck Club
Sharmila Tagore — Dhadkan,The World of Apu
Tessa Thompson — Creed,Dear White People
Lorraine Toussaint — Selma,Middle of Nowhere
Glynn Turman — Super 8,Men of Honor
Gabrielle Union — Top Five,Bad Boys II
Jacob Vargas — The 33,Jarhead
Alicia Vikander — The Danish Girl,Ex Machina
Emma Watson — The Bling Ring,The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Damon Wayans, Jr. — Big Hero 6,Let’s Be Cops
Marlon Wayans — The Heat,Requiem for a Dream
Rita Wilson — It’s Complicated,Runaway Bride
Daphne Zuniga — Staying Together,Spaceballs

Directors
Lenny Abrahamson — Room,Frank
Naji Abu Nowar — Theeb
Maren Ade — Everyone Else,The Forest for the Trees
Lexi Alexander — Punisher: War Zone,Green Street Hooligans
Haifaa al-Mansour — Wadjda
Ana Lily Amirpour — A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Amma Asante — Belle,A Way of Life
Katie Aselton — Black Rock,The Freebie
Ramin Bahrani — 99 Homes,At Any Price
Anna Boden — Mississippi Grind,It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Catherine Breillat — The Sleeping Beauty,Sex Is Comedy
Israel Cárdenas — Sand Dollars,Carmita
Carlos Carrera — Backyard,El Crimen del Padre Amaro
Nuri Bilge Ceylan — Winter Sleep,Once upon a Time in Anatolia
Souleymane Cissé — Brightness,The Wind
Isabel Coixet — Learning to Drive,Elegy
Ryan Coogler* — Creed,Fruitvale Station
Scott Cooper — Black Mass,Crazy Heart
John Crowley — Brooklyn,Closed Circuit
Julie Dash — Daughters of the Dust
Tamra Davis — Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,Billy Madison
Jonathan Dayton — Ruby Sparks,Little Miss Sunshine
Dominique Deruddere — Flying Home,Everybody Famous!
Xavier Dolan — Mommy,Tom at the Farm
Cheryl Dunye — My Baby’s Daddy,The Watermelon Woman
Deniz Gamze Ergüven — Mustang
Valerie Faris — Ruby Sparks,Little Miss Sunshine
Shana Feste — Endless Love,Country Strong
Hannah Fidell — A Teacher
Anne Fletcher — The Proposal,Step Up
Ari Folman — The Congress,Waltz with Bashir
Anne Fontaine — Gemma Bovery,Coco before Chanel
Cary Joji Fukunaga — Beasts of No Nation,Jane Eyre
Nicole Garcia — A View of Love,Charlie Says
Juan Antonio Garcia Bayona — The Impossible,The Orphanage
Sarah Gavron — Suffragette,Brick Lane
Lesli Linka Glatter — The Proposition,Now and Then
Ciro Guerra* — Embrace of the Serpent,The Wind Journeys
Laura Amelia Guzmán — Sand Dollars,Carmita
Sanaa Hamri — Just Wright,Something New
Mia Hansen-Løve* — Eden,The Father of My Children
Mahamet-Saleh Haroun — Grigris,Our Father
Mary Harron — The Notorious Bettie Page,American Psycho
Marielle Heller* — The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Albert Hughes — The Book of Eli,Dead Presidents
Hou Hsiao-Hsien — The Assassin,Three Times
Patty Jenkins — Wonder Woman,Monster
Naomi Kawase* — Still the Water,The Mourning Forest
Abdellatif Kechiche — Blue Is the Warmest Color,Black Venus
Abbas Kiarostami — Certified Copy,Taste of Cherry
So Yong Kim — For Ellen,In Between Days
Kiyoshi Kurosawa — Seventh Code,Pulse
Karyn Kusama — Jennifer’s Body,Girlfight
Francis H. Lawrence — The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,I Am Legend
Tobias Lindholm* — A War,A Hijacking
Phyllida Lloyd — The Iron Lady,Mamma Mia!
Ken Loach — The Wind That Shakes the Barley,Kes
Julia Loktev — The Loneliest Planet,Day Night Day Night
Ami Canaan Mann — Jackie & Ryan,Texas Killing Fields
Lucrecia Martel — The Headless Woman,The Holy Girl
Adam McKay* — The Big Short,Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Deepa Mehta — Midnight’s Children,Water
Ursula Meier — Sister,Home
Rebecca Miller* — The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,Personal Velocity
Karen Moncrieff — The Dead Girl,Blue Car
Cristian Mungiu* — Graduation,4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Anna Muylaert — The Second Mother
László Nemes* — Son of Saul
María Novaro — The Good Herbs,Lola
Victor Nunez — Spoken Word,Ulee’s Gold
Euzhan Palcy — Siméon,A Dry White Season
Park Chan-wook* — Stoker,Oldboy
Lucía Puenzo — The German Doctor,El Niño Pez
Lynne Ramsay — We Need to Talk about Kevin,Morvern Callar
Dee Rees — Pariah
Nicolas Winding Refn — Only God Forgives,Drive
Patricia Riggen — The 33,Girl in Progress
Gillian Robespierre — Obvious Child
Patricia Rozema — Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,Mansfield Park
Marjane Satrapi — The Voices,Persepolis
Sam Taylor-Johnson — Fifty Shades of Grey,Nowhere Boy
George Tillman, Jr. — Notorious,Soul Food
Luis Valdez — La Bamba,Zoot Suit
Melvin Van Peebles — Identity Crisis,Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Margarethe von Trotta — Rosenstrasse,Marianne and Juliane
Lana Wachowski — Cloud Atlas,The Matrix Trilogy
Lilly Wachowski — Cloud Atlas,The Matrix Trilogy
Taika Waititi — Hunt for the Wilderpeople,What We Do in the Shadows
James Wan — The Conjuring,Saw
Keenan Ivory Wayans* — Scary Movie,A Low Down Dirty Shame
Apichatpong Weerasethakul — Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,Tropical Malady

Writers
Jonathan Aibel — Kung Fu Panda series, Monsters vs Aliens
Sherman Alexie — The Business of Fancydancing,Smoke Signals
Glenn Berger — Kung Fu Panda series, Monsters vs Aliens
Andrea Berloff — Straight Outta Compton,World Trade Center
Vera Blasi — Tortilla Soup,Woman on Top
Ryan Coogler* — Creed,Fruitvale Station
Destin Daniel Cretton — Short Term 12,I Am Not a Hipster
Emma Donoghue — Room
Tina Fey — Mean Girls
Efthimis Filippou — The Lobster,Dogtooth
Jennifer Flackett-Levin — Little Manhattan,Wimbledon
Ryan Fleck — Mississippi Grind,Half Nelson
Alex Garland — Ex Machina,28 Days Later
Drew Goddard — The Martian,Cloverfield
Ciro Guerra* — Embrace of the Serpent,The Wind Journeys
Mia Hansen-Løve* — Eden,The Father of My Children
Marielle Heller* — The Diary of a Teenage Girl
David Henry Hwang — Possession,Golden Gate
O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson* — The Players Club,Friday
Jia Zhangke — Mountains May Depart,Still Life
Miranda July — The Future,Me and You and Everyone We Know
Laeta Kalogridis — Terminator Genisys,Shutter Island
Naomi Kawase* — Still the Water,Firefly
Richard Kelly — Domino,Donnie Darko
Takeshi Kitano — Outrage,Kikujiro
Hirokazu Koreeda — “Like Father, Like Son, Nobody Knows
Yorgos Lanthimos — The Lobster,Dogtooth
Lee Chang-dong — Poetry,Oasis
Sebastián Lelio — Gloria,Navidad
Mark Levin — Journey to the Center of the Earth,Nim’s Island
Tobias Lindholm* — A War,The Hunt
Adam McKay* — The Big Short,The Other Guys
Rebecca Miller* — Maggie’s Plan,The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Abi Morgan — Suffragette,The Iron Lady
Cristian Mungiu* — Beyond the Hills,Occident
Phyllis Nagy — Carol
László Nemes* — Son of Saul
Park Chan-wook* — Thirst,Oldboy
Charles Randolph — The Big Short,The Life of David Gale
Carlos Reygadas — Silent Light,Battle in Heaven
Clara Royer — Son of Saul
Misan Sagay — Belle,The Secret Laughter of Women
Lorene Scafaria — The Meddler,Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Josh Singer — Spotlight,The Fifth Estate
Keenan Ivory Wayans* — White Chicks,A Low Down Dirty Shame
Alice Winocour — Mustang,Home

*Eighteen individuals have been invited to join the academy by multiple branches and will have to select one branch upon accepting membership.

The full list is in the link in the Tweet. Character limits for a post on The Coli wouldn't let me post the whole list.

 

[Jax]

Any person doing movies gets an invite. End of the day It's just gonna be a popularity contest.