Page 8 The Skanner February 3, 2016
News
By Jake Coyle
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK — Since
the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Scienc-
es said it was altering
membership rules in
response to an outcry
over the diversity of its
voters and nominees, an-
other uproar has erupt-
ed around Hollywood.
Many academy members
are protesting that the
new measures unjustly
scapegoat older acade-
my members and imply
they’re racist.
Fiery letters have
poured into the academy.
Trade magazines are lit-
tered with critical op-eds
from members.
Meanwhile, civil rights
leaders and others say
the academy’s actions
didn’t go far enough.
More steps are need-
ed, they say, to make the
Oscars and the industry
more inclusive.
Reforms meant to calm
a crisis seem to have only
further enflamed it.
This year’s Feb. 28
Academy Awards are
looking less like a glitzy
gala and more like a bat-
tlefield.
“We all have to calm
down a bit. The conversa-
tion has become unduly
vitriolic,” says Rod Lurie,
the writer-director of
“Straw Dogs” and “The
Contender” and a mem-
ber of the academy’s di-
rectors’ branch. “Nobody
“
boycott of the Oscars
broadcast — the 51-mem-
ber board unanimously
voted to revamp mem-
bership rules in an effort
to change the makeup of
the largely White, male
and older association
of some 7,000 exclusive
members.
Though Oscar voting
was previously for life, it
will now be restricted to
aren’t to blame for the
dearth of minority nom-
inees in the past two
years; the industry is.
Studies have shown
that minorities remain
underrepresented in all
levels of the movie busi-
ness, from protagonists
on screen to executives
who can green-light a
film. But the last two
years are something of
an
aberration
in recent Oscar
history. In the 10
years prior, 24
of the 200 acting
nominees were
Black. (Far less is
the rate of nods for His-
panics or Asian-Ameri-
cans, however.)
William Goldstein, a
composer and longtime
academy member, chas-
tised the academy in a
Los Angeles Times edi-
torial for “capitulating
to political correctness”
while missing the bigger
picture.
Hollywood wants to deal with this
as a communications crisis, not a
crisis of substance
in the academy should
dignify any accusations
of racism,” Lurie said in
an interview, “but there
obviously are biases that
are created by the demo-
graphics of the academy.”
The
typically
slow-moving
academy
acted swiftly last week,
holding an emergency
meeting of its Board of
Governors. In the wake
of a second straight year
of all-White acting nom-
inees — and calls for a
members who have been
active in the industry
within the past 10 years,
with a few exceptions
like for previous Oscar
nominees. The academy
also set a goal to double
minority and female
members by 2020.
Some academy mem-
bers, while applauding
efforts to diversify the
academy, said taking
away voting rights from
older members smacks
of ageism, and that they
“The set of voters that
they’re going to get rid of
have seen more movies
and have more context
in which to judge some-
thing than any newbie
coming into the acade-
my,” Goldstein told The
PHOTO BY EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP, FILE
Motion Picture academy reforms spark new round of protests
In this Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 file photo, director Spike Lee attends the
premiere of HBO’s new drama series “Vinyl,” at the Ziegfeld Theatre,
in New York. Change at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences, where membership is for life, does not come easily. As Lee
said on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, its 6,000-plus membership can’t be
changed “hocus pocus, presto chango” overnight.
Associated Press. “You
can bring in more wom-
en, you can bring in more
anybody. Everybody’s a
human being. They’re go-
ing to vote what they’re
going to vote. Nothing’s
going to change.”
The academy indirectly
responded to the furor
in the “frequently asked
questions” section of
its website on Monday.
“We’re not excluding
older members,” it reads.
“These rules are not
about age.”
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