Regularly accused of being too masculine and too white, the Academy of Oscars, the most exclusive club in Hollywood, published on Tuesday the list of 819 new members invited to join its ranks this year. Among these new entrants, who are not obliged to accept, 45% are women and 36% come from ethnic minorities "underrepresented in the organization". Four are French.
This is how the Academy invited the actress Adèle Haenel, symbol of the fight against sexual abuse in the cinema after her accusations against the director Christophe Ruggia, and her coup de brilliance to the Césars ceremony. Furious that Roman Polanski was distinguished as best director, she had left the room. The filmmaker Ladj Ly is also invited. His punch film, "Les Misérables", which recounts the terrible relationships between young people in the cities and the police, was selected to represent France at the ceremony last January.
He can choose between two colleges, that of screenwriters and that of directors, like Jérémy Clapin. "I lost my body", his animated film, won the César for best animated film and best original music, and was nominated for an Oscar. Mai Diop, Franco-Senegalese director, whose feature film "Atlantique" received the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2019, can also choose the group in which she wishes to sit.
Eva Longoria, Cynthia Erivo… also arrive
Among the new arrivals are also, in particular, actress Awkwafina ("Crazy Rich Asians"), Cynthia Erivo ("Harriet"), Eva Longoria, Zendaya, Zazie Beetz ("Joker"), the next James Bond girl Ana de Armas or Yalitza Aparicio, Mexican native revealed in "Roma", the director Matti Diop, technicians, costumers, marketing managers, and many other trades essential to the making of cinema.
"The Academy is delighted to welcome these distinguished traveling companions in the arts and sciences of cinema," said Academy President David Rubin in a statement. "We have always embraced an extraordinary talent that reflects the great variety of our global film community, and today more than ever."
In 2016, after several years of scathing criticism of the composition of its colleges considered disconnected from society, the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences announced a doubling of the number of women and members from ethnic minorities by 2020.
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It considers that it has achieved this objective. The number of women members since 2015 has more than doubled, from 1,446 to 3,179; that of people of color tripled, from 554 to 1,787. And international members also tripled (from 747 to 2,107). To boost its diversity, the Academy also had to considerably increase its enrollment, which has grown from around 6,000 to almost 10,000 today.