The Academy has announced that they’ve invited a whopping 774 new members this year, which is a record-breaking number for the institution.
According to a report from Variety, these new members offer a little bit more diversity when it comes to the Oscars voting process, which has historically been very white and male. The new class, which includes actors like Moonlight’s Naomie Harris, Donald Glover, and Leslie Jones among many others, is now 30 percent people of color. According to the Academy there has been a 331 percent increase of people of color joining from 2015-2017, so maybe #OscarsSoWhite really did work? At least a little?
The new class is also 39 percent female, which is a jump from the influx being just 27 percent women last year. Still, when you look at the big picture overall, only 28 percent of the Academy is female and 13 percent is POC, so there’s still a long way to go. There are, however, no numbers in the report reflecting how many new members won’t fuck up the winning card pass-off at the Oscars. I would have liked to have seen those!
