Oscars Academy Set to Surpass Gender and Diversity Membership Goals by Next Year

by Steve Pond | July 1, 2019 @ 12:11 PM

The Academy has doubled the number of non-white members well ahead of schedule, and its goal of doubling female members is now within reach

With its fourth consecutive year of sending invitations to several hundred prospective members, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is on track to meet or surpass the diversity goals it set for itself three years ago at the height of the #OscarsSoWhite movement.

It has already met its goal of doubling the number of non-white members by 2020, and it is now within striking distance of doubling the number of female members.

Both of those goals were announced in early 2016, when the second straight year of all-white acting nominations led to an outcry and caused the Academy to take steps to diversify its membership. It also announced specific goals to change the makeup of an organization that had long been predominantly white and male.

Also Read: Lady Gaga, Claire Foy Lead Oscars Academy's 842 New Member Invitations

At that point in early 2016, the Academy’s own figures showed that the organization, which at that point consisted of 6,436 active members, was 92 percent white and 75 percent male. To meet its goal of doubling minority and female members, then, it needed to add about 515 non-white members and a little more than 1,600 female members.

That spring, after an outreach program to identify prospective new members, it invited 683 people to join, more than double the size of any previous group during the years in which AMPAS had announced its invitations. The following year it broke that record with 774 invitations, and in 2018 it once again set a new record with 928 invitations.

The first of those years saw invitations going to 280 non-white film professionals, followed by 232 in 2017, 353 in 2018 and 244 this year. While not every invited member opts to join the Academy, the 1,109 invitations are enough to have easily hit the goal of doubling the number of non-white members – and, in fact, are close to quadrupling the number of non-white members between 2016 and 2019.

Also Read: Academy Museum Opening Delayed Until After 2020 Oscars

The goal of doubling the number of women was tougher — and in fact, for the first two years the Academy lagged behind the pace that would have been necessary to hit the goal, sending invitations to 515 in 2016 and 302 in 2017. But last year’s mammoth outreach was 49 percent female, potentially adding 455 women to the Academy and bringing the goal within reach as long as they added about 300 women for each of the next two years.

This year’s group of 842 invited members was 50 percent female for the first time ever, with the 421 invitations to women raising the number of invited women to 1,493. That places it within 200 of reaching the goal of doubling the number of female Academy members with next year’s invitations.

While the record numbers of new invitations have substantially raised the number of women and people of color within the Academy, the percentage of female and non-white members have grown more slowly. Nonwhite membership has grown from eight percent in 2015 to 11 percent in 2016, 13 percent in 2017 and 16 percent in 2018 and 2019, while female membership has increased from 25 percent in 2015 to 27 percent in 2016, 28 percent in 2017, 31 percent in 2018 and 32 percent this year.

Oscars 2019: 11 Best and Worst Moments, From Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper Duet to 'Wayne's World' Reunion (Photos)

The 91st Academy Awards may not have had a host, but the 3 hour, 17 minute-long show was filled with plenty of heartwarming and gut-wrenching moments. Here, TheWrap rounds up the 11 best and worst bits of the 2019 Oscars.

Also Read: Oscars 2019: The Complete Winners List
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BEST/WORST: The Host-Less Opening -- It's not your fault, Adam Lambert. It's just that it's weird to hear anyone sing "We Are the Champions" that isn't Freddie Mercury. (Maybe a pass for now: Oscar winner Rami Malek?) Meanwhile, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph made their best pitch to be next year's Oscars hosts, and we hope the Academy was listening.

Also Read: Oscars 2019: Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Didn’t Host, But Might as Well Have
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BEST: Tyler Perry Calls Out Academy -- While presenting the Best Cinematography category, Perry reminded everyone of the Academy's ill-fated attempt to move some of the awards to the commercials -- one of which was going to be Best Cinematography.

Also Read: Oscars: Tyler Perry Thanks Academy for Not Kicking Best Cinematography to Commercial
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BEST: Trevor Noah Roasts Mel Gibson -- The "Daily Show" host got to present Best Picture nominee "Black Panther" and took a jab at Mel Gibson in the process: "Mel Gibson came up to me like, ‘Wakanda Forever.’ He said another word after that, but the Wakanda part was nice.”

Also Read: Oscars 2019: Spike Lee Calls on Voters to ‘Do the Right Thing’ in 2020 Election
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BEST: Dana Carvey and Mike Myers' "Wayne's World" Reunion -- A Queen biopic titled after the song that Wayne and Garth famously rocked out to was nominated for Best Picture. So, yeah, like this wasn't going to happen.

Also Read: Netflix Teases ‘Irishman,’ Scorsese’s Latest, During Oscars – Watch it Here (Video)
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BEST: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga Made Us Cry (Again) With “Shallow" -- Ally and Jackson Maine — er, we mean Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper -- silenced the entire Dolby Theatre when they took the stage to sing “Shallow,” their already-iconic duet from “A Star Is Born.” And then of course they brought the house down with applause when they finished. Hey, even if you’ve re-watched that scene from the movie a million times already, it was nice just to take another look at them. Oh, and then the song won an Oscar later in the evening, making this moment even more perfect.

Also Read: Oscars: Watch Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga Sing ‘Shallow’ (Video)
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BEST: Awkwafina and John Mulaney Are the Most Adorable/Overwhelmed Presenters Ever -- The breakout star of “Crazy Rich Asians” and the “SNL” alum were honored just to be announcing those who were nominated for Best Animated Short at the 91st Annual Academy Awards — even if they were totally freaked out while doing it. These two very funny people had a very funny, joint on-stage panic attack while recapping how starstruck they were hanging out backstage, rubbing elbows with the other A-list presenters.

Also Read: Oscars: Watch Rami Malek Praise Immigrant and LBGTQ Stories During Best Actor Speech (Video)
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BEST: Keegan-Michael Key Enters Mary Poppins-Style -- The comedian came down from the the Dolby Theatre's rafters via umbrella to introduce Bette Midler‘s performance of the Oscar-nominated song “The Place Where Lost Things Go" from "Mary Poppins Returns." Let's just say there are few ways to upstage Bette Midler, but that was one of them.

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BEST: Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry Are the Most-Costumed While Presenting Best Costume -- When the "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" star and "If Beale Street Could Talk" actor were given control over announcing the costume category, they clearly decided to lean into the job. You can read our full breakdown of their look here.

Also Read: Let’s Break Down Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry’s Glorious Oscars Costumes
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WORST: In Memoriam Snubs -- The Academy had to shave time off somewhere to try to reach its goal of a three-hour show. It looks like the In Memoriam segment -- which left out Sondra Locke, Verne Troyer, Dick Miller and R. Lee Ermey -- was where they did it.

Also Read: Oscars In Memoriam Snubs: Sondra Locke, Verne Troyer, Dick Miller, R Lee Ermey
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BEST: Oscars Show Stays Pretty Close to Its 3-Hour Runtime Pledge -- No bloated opening monologue and a much tighter show (with a shaved-down In Memoriam segment) helped the Academy stick very close to its goal of a three-hour night, with Sunday's telecast coming in at just 17 minutes over, despite airing all 24 awards live.

Also Read: Oscar’s Longest Losing Streaks: 12 People With 10-Plus Nominations and No Wins (Photos)
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WORST: "Green Book" Best Picture Speech Omits Don Shirley -- “Green Book” producers and director Peter Farrelly thanked a number of people – even giving a shoutout to the late Carrie Fisher – but there was one notable omission: Don Shirley. This was made all the worse by Mahershala Ali winning an Oscar for playing him.

Also Read: Queen and Adam Lambert Will Perform at Oscars Ceremony
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We just wanted to take another look at them

The 91st Academy Awards may not have had a host, but the 3 hour, 17 minute-long show was filled with plenty of heartwarming and gut-wrenching moments. Here, TheWrap rounds up the 11 best and worst bits of the 2019 Oscars.

Also Read: Oscars 2019: The Complete Winners List

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