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The Academy’s Board Vows to Double Minority Membership by 2020: All the Details

Oscar Academy Awards
Oscar statuettes during the 87th Annual Academy Awards

Four years. After a scandal-ridden week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors released a statement on Friday, January 22, vowing and pledging to double its minority and female membership by the 2020 Oscars.

The board voted in a unanimous sweep on Thursday night to approve “substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse,” it read in the release from the Academy to Us Weekly.

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

Related: PHOTOS: Oscars 2016 Best Picture Nominations: See the Complete List

John Krasinski and Cheryl Boone Isaacs
John Krasinski and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs during the Academy Awards Nominations Announcement

In order to accommodate its goal by 2020, the Academy is establishing three additional governors seats. These seats will be nominated by the Academy president for three-year terms. The Academy is also allowing new members (not elected to the Board of Governors) to be involved in its executive committees. “This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders,” the statement read.

Related: PHOTOS: Oscar Snubs: Most Overlooked Films, Stars and Shocking Losses in Academy Awards History

According to the release, here are some of the changes implemented and voted upon:

– Each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade.
– Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.
– These same standards retroactively to current members.
– Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting.
– The Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.

These changes were announced after the 2016 nominations were announced last Thursday, January 14, leaving off minority actors across all major acting categories. Immediately after, the Internet reacted with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, prompting stars like Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and other Hollywood players to announce their decision to boycott the upcoming show.

Chris Rock, who joked that the Oscars was the “white BET Awards,” will host the 88th annual awards show. 

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