Film Academy announces new membership process; will reduce new invitees by half after exceeding diversity goal

People who have won or been nominated for Oscars will be considered without limitations

Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced changes to the 2021 membership review process.  To ensure the necessary infrastructure, staff resources and environment to support all Academy members, this year’s growth in membership will be limited to roughly half that of recent years.  This modification will enable steady future growth and allow the Academy to continue serving its membership in a more personal manner.  Ahead of this change, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted on branch-specific guidelines to be applied in determining this year’s new membership invitees.  Oscar winners and nominees will be considered without limitation by applicable branches.    

“As we look to the future growth and goals of the Academy, we need to scale appropriately so we can continue to give the personal service our members have come to expect and appreciate,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.  “We remain focused on cultivating a membership body that reflects our diverse film community and the world around us.”

The Academy has expanded its class size over the last several years, exceeding its goal to double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities by 2020.  Membership selection decisions will continue to be based on professional qualifications, with representation, inclusion and equity remaining a priority.  The Academy is committed to advancing its Aperture 2025 initiative, furthering goals to increase equity and inclusion in the stories told through film, elevate different voices within Academy leadership, and provide opportunities to amplify these voices across multiple sectors in the industry. 

The 2020 class invited 819 members, which was made up of 45% women, 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 49% international from 68 countries. 2019 invited 842 new members, 2018 saw a record-setting 942 invitees and 2017 saw 774. The current membership (before this year’s invitees) sits at about 9,900, almost more than double since the the initiative began after two years of all white acting nominees and the spawn of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign that initially instigated the change.

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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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