#OscarsSoWhite: Academy introduces new membership and voting rules to boost diversityMumbai, Jan 23(AZINS) To address the issues with racial and gender diversity when it comes to Oscars nominations, theBoard of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unanimously voted to make drastic changes in the current membership rules in a meeting called on Thursday night. The meeting was a routine one, scheduled much before the controversy over the 2016 nominations broke, but the issue of diversity took centre stage as a result of the same.

The Academy has been under media fire since the announcements for this year's nominations were made on January 14 where no person of colour was nominated in the acting categories for the second year in a row, breathing new fire into the #OscarsSoWhite debate.

Celebrities like Jada Pinkett-Smith, Will Smith, director Spike Lee called for boycotting the ceremony this year. Artists like Viola Davis, George Clooney, Brie Larson, Mark Ruffalo showed their support and called for creating space for diversity in the industry. However, on the other hand, Charlotte Rampling who is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in 45 Years and veteran actor Michael Caine have made some controversial statements.

After the outrage over social media and among her peers came to light, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs had said in a statement, "I'd like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year's nominees. While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes. As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly."

Therefore after the meeting, Academy issued a statement on revealing the new rules for membership and its steps to include more members of different races and gender. They are as follows-

1. Starting this year, voting status of new members will last 10 years. They can renew the membership if they stay active in filming in that decade.

2. Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three 10-year terms; or if they have been nominated for or have won an Academy Award.

3. Same standards will be applied to the existing members retroactively.

4. Those who fail to qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. These members will enjoy all the perks of membership except voting.

5. The Academy will introduce three new governor seats increasing the number to 54.

6. Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity

In its statement the Academy also said that the Board was committing to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.

Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement, "The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up. These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”

In June 2015, Academy invited a record of 322 new members to address the issue of diversity after receiving flak of #OscarsSoWhite last year. With 6261 voting members across 17 branches (actors nominate actors, directors nominate directors, so on and so forth), the move did not make much difference as the outrage skewed representation continues.