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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 30 January 2016
Film academy reforms spark new round of protests
JAKE COYLE bers and imply they’re rac- ther enflamed it. This year’s 10 years, with a few excep- “The set of voters that
AP Film Writer ist. Feb. 28 Academy Awards tions like for previous Oscar they’re going to get rid of
NEW YORK (AP) — Since the Fiery letters have poured are looking less like a glitzy nominees. The academy have seen more movies
Academy of Motion Pic- into the academy. Trade gala and more like a bat- also set a goal to double and have more context in
ture Arts and Sciences said magazines are littered with tlefield. minority and female mem- which to judge something
it was altering membership critical op-eds from mem- “We all have to calm down bers by 2020. than any newbie com-
rules in response to an out- bers. Meanwhile, civil rights a bit. The conversation has Some academy members, ing into the academy,”
cry over the diversity of its leaders and others say the become unduly vitriolic,” while applauding efforts Goldstein told The Associ-
voters and nominees, an- academy’s actions didn’t says Rod Lurie, the writer-di- to diversify the academy, ated Press. “You can bring
other uproar has erupted go far enough. More steps rector of “Straw Dogs” and said taking away voting in more women, you can
around Hollywood. Many are needed, they say, to “The Contender” and a rights from older members bring in more anybody. Ev-
academy members are make the Oscars and the member of the academy’s smacks of ageism, and that erybody’s a human being.
protesting that the new industry more inclusive. directors’ branch. “Nobody they aren’t to blame for the They’re going to vote what
measures unjustly scape- Reforms meant to calm a in the academy should dig- dearth of minority nomi- they’re going to vote. Noth-
goat older academy mem- crisis seem to have only fur-
An Oscar statue is displayed at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Since the Acad-
emy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said that it was altering membership rules in response to
an outcry over the diversity of its voters and of its nominees, another uproar has erupted around
Hollywood. Many academy members are protesting that the new measures unjustly scapegoat
older academy members and imply they’re racist.
(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
nify any accusations of rac- nees in the past two years; ing’s going to change.”
ism,” Lurie said in an inter- the industry is. In a letter to the academy,
view, “but there obviously Studies have shown that Stephen Geller, a member
are biases that are created minorities remain under- of the writers branch and
by the demographics of represented in all levels of screenwriter of “Slaugh-
the academy.” the movie business, from terhouse-Five,” accused
The typically slow-moving protagonists on screen to academy president Cheryl
academy acted swiftly last executives who can green- Boone Isaacs of “grey-list-
week, holding an emer- light a film. But the last two ing” its older members. Ste-
gency meeting of its Board years are something of an phen Furst, the 60-year-old
of Governors. In the wake aberration in recent Os- actor and academy mem-
of a second straight year of car history. In the 10 years ber best known as Flounder
all-white acting nominees prior, 24 of the 200 acting from “Animal House,” wrote
— and calls for a boycott nominees were black. (Far to the academy lamenting
of the Oscars broadcast less is the rate of nods for “the insulting and unfound-
— the 51-member board Hispanics or Asian-Amer- ed generalities the acad-
unanimously voted to re- icans, however.) William emy has made about the
vamp membership rules Goldstein, a composer and character and judgment of
in an effort to change the longtime academy mem- older academy members.”
makeup of the largely ber, chastised the acad- James Woods, the 68-year-
white, male and older asso- emy in a Los Angeles Times old, twice-nominated
ciation of some 7,000 exclu- editorial for “capitulating to actor, went further: “The
sive members. political correctness” while motion picture acade-
Though Oscar voting was missing the bigger picture. my announced separate
previously for life, it will now He believes outreach and bathroom facilities today:
be restricted to members mentor programs will make one for Members and one
who have been active in a difference, not manipu- for Old White People,” he
the industry within the past lating demographics. mocked on Twitter.q
