While it feels like movie fans everywhere are still recovering from last awards season, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is quickly preparing for 2023 with newly announced invites for some of Hollywood’s hottest stars. The list of 397 artists is made up of 44% women, 37% belonging to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 50% are from 53 countries and territories outside the United States. If all the candidates accept then it would bring The Academy to 34% women, 19% non-white, and 23% non-American.
The new class also includes 71 previous Oscar nominees with 15 being past winners. The list covers a wide range of fields across the industry which includes actors, producers, directors, costume designers, executives, music, and much more. The most notable names include actors like Anya Taylor-Joy (The Northman, Last Night in Soho), Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Jamie Dornan (Belfast), Troy Kotsur (CODA), and Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) along with Sian Harries Heder (Tallulah) who directed this year’s Best Picture winner CODA.
Other names worth highlighting are Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell who recently won the Oscar for Best Original Song in the latest James Bond film No Time to Die as well as director Ryusuke Hamaguchi whose film Drive My Car won Best Foreign Film in 2022. If an invitee accepts their membership they will be able to vote on future Oscar nominees and winners. On top of that, candidates like Ryusuke and Heder have been invited to join in multiple sections (Directors and Writers). If they accept their invitations they will have to choose which branch of The Academy they would want to be a part of.
The Academy has come a long way since the #OscarSoWhite controversy of 2015. And while there’s certainly still a long way to go, the organization has made a clear effort in those seven years to add members that more accurately reflect the movie industry and the world as a whole. Diversity and representation are so important, so it’s nice to see a major organization like The Academy continue to grow and go in the right direction. There have been so many milestones in the last few years like DeBose being the first openly queer actor to win an Oscar and CODA being the first film to win Best Picture with a primarily deaf cast. Those great achievements look to continue with this vast selection of talented artists.
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023. There are a ton of great movies to see between now and then and while we wait to see what films will be represented this awards season, you can view the full 2022 class of Academy invitees on the Oscars‘ website.
via Collider