Academy Welcomes a Record 322 New Members (incl. Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne)

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has invited a record 322 new members to join the Academy and in breaking down the list it appears that diversity was a major factor in many of the choices. In Director alone is a wealth of foreign and female directors that will hopefully help balance out the American white guy standard. Niki Caro, Kelly Reichardt, Lynn Shelton, Bong Joon-ho and François Ozon  are just a few on the list that really stand out. Well done, Academy.

On the Actors side there are the regular lists of nominees from this year such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Felicity Jones but also Choi Min-sik, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo.

Here is the full list:

Actors
Elizabeth Banks – “Love & Mercy,” “The Hunger Games”
Choi Min-sik– “Lucy,” “Oldboy”
Benedict Cumberbatch – “The Imitation Game,” “Star Trek Into Darkness”
Martin Freeman – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Hot Fuzz”
Heather Graham – “The Hangover,” “Boogie Nights”
Tom Hardy – “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Inception”
Kevin Hart – “The Wedding Ringer,” “Ride Along”
Felicity Jones – “The Theory of Everything,” “Like Crazy”
Stephen Lang – “Avatar,” “The Men Who Stare at Goats”
Jodi Long – “A Picture of You,” “Beginners”
John Carroll Lynch – “Shutter Island,” “Zodiac”
Gugu Mbatha-Raw – “Beyond the Lights,” “Belle”
Denis O’Hare – “Milk,” “Michael Clayton”
Michael O’Neill – “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Transformers”
David Oyelowo – “Selma,” “A Most Violent Year”
Dev Patel – “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Rosamund Pike – “Gone Girl,” “Pride & Prejudice”
Chris Pine – “Into the Woods,” “Star Trek”
Daniel Radcliffe – “Kill Your Darlings,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
Eddie Redmayne – “The Theory of Everything,” “Les Misérables”
Jason Segel – “The Five-Year Engagement,” “The Muppets”
J.K. Simmons – “Whiplash,” “Juno”
Sonny Skyhawk – “Geronimo: An American Legend,” “Young Guns II”
Song Kang-ho – “Snowpiercer,” “The Host”
Emma Stone – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “The Help”

Casting Directors
Lucy Bevan – “Cinderella,” “The Hundred-Foot Journey”
Victoria Burrows – “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “King Kong”
Aisha Coley – “Selma,” “Beyond the Lights”
Patricia DiCerto – “Blue Jasmine,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Mary Hidalgo – “The Lego Movie,” “The Incredibles”
Roger Mussenden – “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Get Smart”
Lucie Robitaille – “Incendies,” “The Barbarian Invasions”
Luis San Narciso – “The Skin I Live In,” “The Sea Inside”
April Webster – “Tomorrowland,” “Star Trek”
Tricia Wood – “Woman in Gold,” “The Lincoln Lawyer”

Cinematographers
Christopher Blauvelt – “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” “The Bling Ring”
Adriano Goldman – “August: Osage County,” “Jane Eyre”
Ben Kasulke – “Laggies,” “Safety Not Guaranteed”
Ryszard Lenczewski – “Ida,” “Margaret”
Jody Lee Lipes – “Ballet 422,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Sharone Meir – “Whiplash,” “Mean Creek”
Rachel Morrison – “Cake,” “Fruitvale Station”
Tristan Oliver – “ParaNorman,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Hoyte Van Hoytema – “Interstellar,” “Her”
Roman Vasyanov – “Fury,” “End of Watch”
Łukasz Żal – “Ida,” “Joanna”

Costume Designers
Kasia Walicka Maimone – “Foxcatcher,” “Moonrise Kingdom”
Francesca Livia Sartori – “Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy,” “When the Night”
Jany Temime – “Gravity,” “Skyfall”

Designers
Ramsey Avery – “Tomorrowland,” “Star Trek Into Darkness”
Gae Buckley – “The Book of Eli,” “He’s Just Not That into You”
Keith Brian Burns – “The Best Man Holiday,” “2 Fast 2 Furious”
Lester W. Cohen – “Fading Gigolo,” “Cop Land”
Suzie Davies – “Mr. Turner,” “The Children”
John F. Fenner – “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley”
Darren Gilford – “Oblivion,” “Tron: Legacy”
Derek R. Hill – “Southpaw,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
Bryn Imagire – “Cars 2,” “Up”
Dina Lipton – “Baggage Claim,” “Love Hurts”
Tatiana Macdonald – “The Imitation Game,” “The Invisible Woman”
Dominic Masters – “Woman in Gold,” “Casino Royale”
Doug Meerdink – “Jurassic World,” “Ocean’s Thirteen”
Chris Spellman – “Paper Towns,” “This Is the End”
Patrick Tatopoulos – “300: Rise of an Empire,” “Total Recall”
Charlotte Watts – “Mr. Holmes,” “Mr. Turner”

Directors
Michael Binder – “Black or White,” “Reign over Me”
Bong Joon-ho – “Snowpiercer,” “Mother”
Niki Caro – “North Country,” “Whale Rider”
Damien Chazelle* – “Whiplash,” “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”
Simon Curtis – “Woman in Gold,” “My Week with Marilyn”
François Girard – “Silk,” “The Red Violin”
F. Gary Gray – “The Italian Job,” “Friday”
James Gunn – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Super”
Im Kwon-taek – “Chi-Hwa-Seon (Painted Fire),” “Chunhyang”
Stan Lathan – “Beat Street,” “Amazing Grace”
Malcolm D. Lee* – “The Best Man Holiday,” “The Best Man”
Justin Lin – “Fast & Furious 6,” “Better Luck Tomorrow”
François Ozon – “Young & Beautiful,” “Swimming Pool”
Paweł Pawlikowski* – “Ida,” “My Summer of Love”
Kelly Reichardt – “Meek’s Cutoff,” “Wendy and Lucy”
Ira Sachs – “Love Is Strange,” “Keep the Lights On”
Lynn Shelton – “Laggies,” “Your Sister’s Sister”
Abderrahmane Sissako* – “Timbuktu,” “Bamako”
Damián Szifron* – “Wild Tales,” “On Probation”
Fernando Trueba – “Chico & Rita,” “Belle Epoque”
Morten Tyldum – “The Imitation Game,” “Headhunters”
Zaza Urushadze – “Tangerines,” “The Guardian”
Wayne Wang – “Anywhere but Here,” “The Joy Luck Club”
Edgar Wright – “The World’s End,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”
Joe Wright – “Anna Karenina,” “Atonement”
Andrey Zvyagintsev* – “Leviathan,” “Elena”

Documentary
Richard Berge – “The Island President,” “The Rape of Europa”
Mathilde Bonnefoy* – “CitizenFour,” “The Invisibles”
Emad Burnat – “5 Broken Cameras”
Guy Davidi – “5 Broken Cameras,” “Interrupted Streams”
Geralyn Dreyfous – “The Square,” “The Invisible War”
Lewis Erskine – “Free Angela: And All Political Prisoners,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”
Shana Hagan – “Misconception,” “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”
Tony Hardmon – “Detropia,” “Semper Fi: Always Faithful”
Leonard Retel Helmrich – “Position among the Stars,” “Shape of the Moon”
Pirjo Honkasalo – “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia,” “Atman”
Judy Irving – “Pelican Dreams,” “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”
Robert Kenner – “Merchants of Doubt,” “Food, Inc.”
Marc Levin – “Mr. Untouchable,” “The Last Party”
Jesse Moss – “The Overnighters,” “Full Battle Rattle”
Pratibha Parmar – “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth,” “A Place of Rage”
Paula DuPre’ Pesmen – “Keep On Keepin’ On,” “The Cove”
Gordon Quinn – “Life Itself,” “Hoop Dreams”
Kim Roberts – “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” “Lost Boys of Sudan”
Richard Rowley – “Dirty Wars,” “The Fourth World War”
João Moreira Salles – “Santiago,” “Entreatos (Intermissions)”
Ondi Timoner – “We Live in Public,” “Dig!”

Executives
Carolyn Blackwood
Robbie Brenner
Lia Buman
Steve Burke
David Fenkel
Mellody Hobson
Brian Keane
Steven Paul O’Dell
Jim Orr
Mark Rachesky
Ted Sarandos
Jeff Shell

Film Editors
Craig Alpert – “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Pineapple Express”
Mick Audsley – “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” “Dirty Pretty Things”
Pablo Barbieri – “Wild Tales,” “La Antena (The Aerial)”
Nadia Ben Rachid – “Timbuktu,” “Bamako”
Kristina Boden – “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” “Cake”
Mathilde Bonnefoy* – “CitizenFour,” “Run Lola Run”
Julian Clarke – “Chappie,” “District 9”
Douglas Crise – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Babel”
Tom Cross – “Whiplash,” “Any Day Now”
Jinx Godfrey – “The Theory of Everything,” “Man on Wire”
Robert Grahamjones – “Brave,” “Ratatouille”
Masahiro Hirakubo – “Virunga,” “The Duchess”
Jarosław Kamiński – “Ida,” “Aftermath (Pokłosie)”
William Kerr – “Bridesmaids,” “I Love You, Man”
Nico Leunen – “Lost River,” “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Mike McCusker – “Get On Up,” “3:10 to Yuma”
Tim Mertens – “Big Hero 6,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
Barney Pilling – “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “An Education”
David Rennie – “22 Jump Street,” “Office Space”
Gary D. Roach – “American Sniper,” “Prisoners”
Michael L. Sale – “We’re the Millers,” “Bridesmaids”
Stephen Schaffer – “Cars 2,” “WALL-E”
Job ter Burg – “Borgman,” “Winter in Wartime”
Peter Teschner – “St. Vincent,” “Horrible Bosses”
Tara Timpone – “Friends with Kids,” “Bad Teacher”

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Frida S. Aradottir – “August: Osage County,” “A Serious Man”
Victoria Down – “Big Eyes,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
Frances Hannon – “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The King’s Speech”
Todd Kleitsch – “Run All Night,” “Black Swan”
Dennis Liddiard – “Foxcatcher,” “Jobs”
Jerry Popolis – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Noah”
Janine Rath-Thompson – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Bridesmaids”
Johnny Villanueva – “The Gambler,” “The Fighter”
David White – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “La Vie en Rose”
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “An Education”

Members-at-Large
Andy Armstrong
Wayne Billheimer
Kevin Brownlow
Simon Crane
Debbie Denise
Jeff Habberstad
Andy Hendrickson
Elissa M. Rashkin Loparco
Guido Quaroni
Nicole Scalise
Steven J. Scott
Leon D. Silverman
Gregg Smrz
Lynda Ellenshaw Thompson
Steve Venezia

Music
Tyler Bates – “John Wick,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Alex Gibson – “Interstellar,” “The Dark Knight”
Jonny Greenwood – “Inherent Vice,” “The Master”
Dave Grusin – “Skating to New York,” “The Firm”
Alex Heffes – “Love and Honor,” “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
Lisa Jaime – “Annie,” “Rock of Ages”
Jóhann Jóhannsson – “The Theory of Everything,” “Prisoners”
Laura Karpman – “States of Grace,” “Black Nativity”
Christopher Lennertz – “The Wedding Ringer,” “Horrible Bosses”
Lonnie Lynn – “Selma,” “Freedom Writers”
Chris McGeary – “Jersey Boys,” “RoboCop”
Sergio Mendes – “Rio 2,” “Rio”
Daniel Pinder – “Big Hero 6,” “Captain Phillips”
Trent Reznor – “Gone Girl,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Atticus Ross – “Love & Mercy,” “The Social Network”
John Stephens – “Selma,” “Django Unchained”
Marc Streitenfeld – “Poltergeist,” “Prometheus”
Erica Weis – “Spy,” “The Heat”
Gary Yershon – “Mr. Turner,” “Another Year”

Producers
Caroline Baron – “Capote,” “Monsoon Wedding”
Effie T. Brown – “Dear White People,” “Real Women Have Curves”
Terence Chang – “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” “Face/Off”
Wyck Godfrey – “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Twilight”
Jeremy Kleiner – “Selma,” “12 Years a Slave”
Pamela Koffler – “Still Alice,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”
Gina Kwon – “Camp X-Ray,” “Me and You and Everyone We Know”
Dan Lin – “The Lego Movie,” “Sherlock Holmes”
Eric Newman – “RoboCop,” “Children of Men”
Bruna Papandrea – “Wild,” “All Good Things”
Lydia Dean Pilcher – “Cutie and the Boxer,” “The Darjeeling Limited”
Rebecca Yeldham – “On the Road,” “The Kite Runner”

Public Relations
Jennifer Allen
Asad Ayaz
Dawn Baillie
Andrew Bernstein
Liz Biber
Mara Buxbaum
Lee Ginsberg
R. Jeff Hill
Michelle Hooper
Chris Libby
Susan Norget
Lewis Oberlander
Gordon Paddison
Elias Plishner
David Pollick
Weiman Seid
LeeAnne Stables
Ryan Stankevich
Bonnie Voland

Short Films and Feature Animation
Alan Barillaro – “Brave,” “WALL-E”
Kristine Belson – “The Croods,” “How to Train Your Dragon”
Darlie Brewster – “Curious George,” “The Prince of Egypt”
Roy Conli – “Big Hero 6,” “Tangled”
Ronnie Del Carmen – “Up,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”
Paul A. Felix – “Big Hero 6,” “Lilo & Stitch”
Michael Fukushima – “Me and My Moulton,” “Dimanche/Sunday”
Don Hall – “Big Hero 6,” “Winnie the Pooh”
Talkhon Hamzavi – “Parvaneh,” “Taub”
Hu Wei – “Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak),” “Le Propriétaire”
Jin Kim – “Big Hero 6,” “Bolt”
Mat Kirkby – “The Phone Call,” “Hard to Swallow”
David Kneupper – “Alex and Sylvia,” “The Civil War in 4 Minutes”
Michael Lennox – “Boogaloo and Graham,” “The Back of Beyond”
Fabio Lignini – “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “Puss in Boots”
James Lucas – “The Phone Call”
Patrick Osborne – “Feast,” “Paperman”
Jerome Ranft – “Toy Story 3,” “Ratatouille”
Jim Reardon – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “WALL-E”
Kristina Reed – “Feast,” “Paperman”
Jason Reisig – “Home,” “Shrek Forever After”
Nicolas Schmerkin – “Habana,” “Logorama”
Anthony Stacchi – “The Boxtrolls,” “Open Season”
Isao Takahata – “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” “Grave of the Fireflies”
Michael Thurmeier – “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” “No Time for Nuts”
Marlon West – “Frozen,” “The Princess and the Frog”

Sound
Ray Beckett – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Hurt Locker”
Odin Benitez – “Frozen,” “Silver Linings Playbook”
Ron Bochar – “Mortdecai,” “Moneyball”
Jason Canovas – “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” “World War Z”
Thomas Curley – “Whiplash,” “The Spectacular Now”
Michael Dressel – “American Sniper,” “Interstellar”
Mary H. Ellis – “Vacation,” “Prisoners”
Stephanie Flack – “Jupiter Ascending,” “Ender’s Game”
Martín Hernández – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Biutiful”
Dean Humphreys – “Taken 3,” “The Pianist”
William Johnston – Vice President of Engineering, Formosa Group
Shawn Jones – “Iron Man 3,” “Drive”
Daniel Laurie – “Inside Out,” “Big Hero 6”
David Lee – “Unbroken,” “The Matrix”
Craig Mann – “Dope,” “Whiplash”
Kyrsten Mate – “Tomorrowland,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Shannon J. Mills – “Inside Out,” “Big Hero 6”
Bryan K. Pennington – “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” “Promised Land”
Juan P. Peralta – “Tomorrowland,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
John Ross – “Danny Collins,” “American Hustle”
Peter Staubli – “San Andreas,” “Skyfall”
Mark Taylor – “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Captain Phillips”
Addison Teague – “Big Hero 6,” “The Amazing Spider-Man”
Jon Title – “San Andreas,” “The Divergent Series: Insurgent”
Thomas Varga – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “The Immigrant”
Ben Wilkins – “Whiplash,” “Star Trek”

Visual Effects
Nicolas Aithadi – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “X-Men: First Class”
Daniel Barrett – “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”
Stephane Ceretti – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Cloud Atlas”
Paul Corbould – “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Tim Crosbie – “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “The Wolverine”
Dan DeLeeuw – “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Iron Man 3”
Sean Faden – “Fast & Furious 6,” “Let Me In”
Joe Farrell – “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Hereafter”
Scott R. Fisher – “Interstellar,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Chris Harvey – “Chappie,” “Fast & Furious 6”
Alex Jaeger – “Tomorrowland,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Matt Kutcher – “Focus,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
Andrew Lockley – “Interstellar,” “Inception”
Gray Marshall – “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”
Carl Miller – “Jurassic World,” “Elysium”
David Nakabayashi – “Tomorrowland,” “Avatar”
Rocco Passionino – “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Spider-Man 2”
Lou Pecora – “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
Cary Phillips – “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Ellen Poon – “Frozen,” “Inception”
Edwin Rivera – “22 Jump Street,” “Moneyball”
Cameron Waldbauer – “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Elysium”
Erik Winquist – “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Avatar”

Writers
Armando Bo – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Biutiful”
Damien Chazelle* – “Whiplash,” “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”
Álex de la Iglesia – “El Crimen Perfecto,” “The Day of the Beast”
Rick Famuyiwa – “Dope,” “The Wood”
Maya Forbes – “Infinitely Polar Bear,” “Monsters vs Aliens”
E. Max Frye – “Foxcatcher,” “Something Wild”
Nicolás Giacobone – “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” “Biutiful”
Dan Gilroy – “Nightcrawler,” “The Bourne Legacy”
Jorge Guerricaechevarría – “Cell 211,” “The Day of the Beast”
Rita Hsiao – “Toy Story 2,” “Mulan”
Simon Kinberg – “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Sherlock Holmes”
Malcolm D. Lee* – “The Best Man Holiday,” “The Best Man”
Christopher Markus – “Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”
Stephen McFeely – “Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The First Avenger”
Graham Moore – “The Imitation Game”
Paweł Pawlikowski* – “Ida,” “My Summer of Love”
Abderrahmane Sissako* – “Timbuktu,” “Bamako”
Damián Szifron* – “Wild Tales,” “On Probation”
Kessen Tall – “Timbuktu”
Tyger Williams – “The Perfect Guy,” “Menace II Society”
Andrey Zvyagintsev* – “Leviathan,” “Elena”

Associates
Victoria Belfrage
Josh Braun
Wayne Fitterman
Sharon Jackson
Patricia Keighley
Cliff Roberts
Elyse Scherz
James Toth
Bart Walker

Seven individuals (noted above by an asterisk) have been invited to join the Academy by multiple branches. These individuals must select one branch upon accepting membership.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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