 "Anupam Kher, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap among 842 new members invited to be part of Oscars Academy")
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has issued an invitation to 842 new members to join its ranks, as the organisation ramps up its efforts to diversify its membership. These film industry voices include 50 percent women and 29 percent people of color, who will vote annually to determine Oscar winners. Check out the official announcement here
Best. Day. Ever. We're excited to invite these 842 inspiring storytellers to the Academy.
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) July 1, 2019
Tweet your welcome using #WeAreTheAcademy today.https://t.co/glplZscerD
Hailing from 59 countries around the world, new invitees for 2019 include Oscar-winning A Star Is Born actress-songwriter Lady Gaga, Spider-Man: Far From Home headliner Tom Holland, The Crown‘s Claire Foy, A Mighty Heart star Archie Panjabi, This Is Us actor Sterling K. Brown. Directors like Crazy Rich Asians’ Jonathan M. Chu and Late Night’s Nisha Ganatra are also invited. Four Indian film personalities including Anupam Kher, Zoya Akhtar(Gully Boy), Ritesh Batra(Photograph) and Anurag Kashyap have also been invited to be a part of Oscars’body.
#WeAreTheAcademy https://t.co/SwOdGFxOLb
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) July 1, 2019
Academy has also inducted several women representing technical branches like cinematography (Carolina Costa), editing (Anne McCabe), and writing (Gillian Flynn, Marti Noxon, Desiree Akhavan, Kay Cannon). Executives invited include Cathleen Taff, president of worldwide distribution at Disney; Julie Rapaport, Amazon Studios’ co-head of movies; indie film financer Ken Kao; and Matt Brodlie, who just left Netflix to run programming at Disney’s forthcoming streaming service. Last year, the Academy invited a record 928 new members , while it asked 774 industry professionals to join in 2017. Overall membership at Academy will now be over 9000, although the organisation did not provide an official statistic since technically this list is for invitees who must first accept the invitation to join. This year’s Oscars ceremony was hailed for its inclusiveness in recognizing the film Black Panther with technical awards and honoring actor Rami Malek, who is of Egyptian descent, with the best actor statue for Bohemian Rhapsody. The 2020 Oscars telecast will be held on 9 February.
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