When Oscar nominees wind up being largely white, Academy Awards voters tend to shrug—because, after all, they can only honor whatever movies happened to get made that year. (As future Oscar-winner Viola Davis put it while accepting another award in 2015: “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”)
But on Friday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it will try to take a more active role in changing the kind of films that end up competing.
“The Academy will encourage equitable hiring practices and representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the film community,” the group said in statement outlining its new plans, which include new, stricter term limits for its board of governors, initiatives to encourage diverse hiring, and changes to the ceremony aimed at creating space for those often shut out.
The alteration most visible to Oscar viewers will be the official expansion of the best-picture category to 10 films. Right now, the rules allow anywhere from five to 10 films to compete for the award; the final number each year depends on a tiered voting system aimed at boosting the most favored movies. As of next year, though, 10 movies will be nominated, period—with the apparent goal of adding more seats at the table for final consideration.
“To truly meet this moment, we must recognize how much more needs to be done, and we must listen, learn, embrace the challenge, and hold ourselves and our community accountable,” Academy President David Rubin said.
The Academy did not set any awards requirements based on hiring quotas, but it has created a task force “to develop and implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility.” Those details are due by the end of July, but won’t apply to competing films until the ceremony in 2022.
For now, the group is establishing some new teaching programs aimed at encouraging members to expand their thinking when it comes to making their movies. The Academy will present panels under the banner “Academy Dialogue: It Starts With Us,” available both to its membership and the public at large, which opens the door to filmmakers who are still aspiring to create work that will lead to their invitation to the group. Right now, the Academy has more than 9,000 members.
The panels will be “conversations about race, ethnicity, history, opportunity, and the art of filmmaking,” the Academy said. One of them will be hosted by Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg, now serving as an Academy governor; it will explore “the lasting impact of racist tropes and harmful stereotypes in Hollywood films.”
Other panels will highlight what the Academy sees as “systemic changes” necessary in “casting, screenwriting, producing, directing, financing and greenlighting of movies in order to afford opportunities to women and people of color and to help create a new narrative for recovery.”
The changes come amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter uprising over civil rights, although concerns about a lack of diversity have long loomed over the Academy and Hollywood.
“While the Academy has made strides, we know there is much more work to be done in order to ensure equitable opportunities across the board,” Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said. “The need to address this issue is urgent. To that end, we will amend—and continue to examine—our rules and procedures to ensure that all voices are heard and celebrated.”
The next Oscars ceremony is currently set for February 28, although there are rumblings in Hollywood that the show may shift back to compensate for the postponement of film releases due to the coronavirus pandemic.