The time for change is upon us. After much uproar which shouldn’t have even been necessary in the first place, The Academy is switching up their policies to avoid any racial issues again with new voting rules. History is in the making as we read. Hit the jump.
The Academy of Motion Picture and Arts had a unanimous voting to make very necessary and crucial changes to the voting staff who decided who gets nominated for an Oscar award.
Voting memberships will no longer be life-long, but will be term-limited and change accordingly on how much each member works. In addition, the Academy is on the hunt, searching for new diverse personnel to hire. Nonwhite and female member counts are set to be doubled by 2020.
This decision is a decisive one to obtain the Oscars’ relevance in pop culture. In the next coming years, it will be left to the imagination to see an all-white nomination ballot.
The changes come after notable house names like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith threatened to boycott the Oscars once the nominations were announced. Lupita Nyong’o, Spike Lee and George Clooney also bashed the Academy in the press, while host Chris Rock was anticipated to step down.
President Cheryl Boone Isaacs stated:
“The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up. These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”
The ceremony takes place Feb. 28.
