Tom Hollad, Letitia Wright, Adele, Lady Gaga an Winston Duke have been named among 842 new members added to the Oscars Academy.
That’s the group of people who decide who win Oscars eah year.
And after criticism of its lack of diversity, the new additions are 50% women and 29% are people of colour.
You might remember #OscarsSoWhite being used in 2015 and 2016 in protest at the lack of actors of colour being nominated for top acting awards.
The new additions are more inclusive and representative of the movie industry following this criticism.
Overall female membership is now 32% - up from 25% in 2015.
People of colour make up 16% of the Academy’s membership now – double what it was four year ago.
In 2016, people like Jada Pinkett Smith and director Spike Lee said they would boycott the Oscars when only white actors were nominated for the big awards.
Chris Rock hosted the event, but there was pressure on him to step down due to the backlash.
To address this, the people asked each year to join the voting panel since then has become more diverse.
People like Riz Ahmed, Priyanka Chopra, Gal Gadot and Naomie Harris joined in 2017.
And 2018 saw jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Amy Schumer, Daniel Kaluuya and Timothee Chalamet added. Other new names on 2019 list include ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ star Gemma Chan and British actor Claire Foy, who you may have seen in ‘The Crown’.
It is estimated that there are now 10 thousand voting members of the Oscars Academy.
—BK
