The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that it has extended invitations to a record-setting 928 artists and executives from around the world to join the academy, as part of its drive to increase diversity.
Long criticized as being white-male dominated, the Oscars-granting academy has announced a series of changes under pressure to its voting and membership procedures.
Aiming at doubling its female and "diverse" membership by 2020, the Academy has continuously increased the number of member invites in recent years.
The academy invited 744 new members in 2017, 683 new members in 2016 and 322 in 2015 respectively. It now has around 8,300 members.
Some 49 percent of this year's invitees are female and if all those invited accept, the ratio of female members would increase from 28 percent in 2017 to 31 percent.
The proportion of people of color would increase from 13 percent in 2017 to 16 percent. There were only 25 percent female and 8 percent people of color in the Academy three years ago.
A total of 17 Oscar winners and 92 Oscar nominees are among the 928 new recruits. Those invited this year include actors like Emilia Clarke, Daniel Kaluuya, Timothee Chalamet, Daisy Ridley and Kumail Nanjiani, as well as directors like Angela Robinson and Luca Guadagnino, screenwriters like J.K. Rowling and Virgil Williams, producers like Lisa Bruce and J. Miles Dale.
Some Chinese filmmakers, such as actors Andy Lau and Sylvia Chang, executives Wang Zhongjun, Wang Zhonglei and Yu Dong, writer Yan Geling and director Lou Ye are among the 2018 invitees.
