Women still under-represented in Hollywood

Source: The Straits Times

LOS ANGELES - When Greta Gerwig did not receive an Oscar nomination in January for best director for Barbie, despite the film's nod for best picture and its status as a global box office phenomenon, the news revived scrutiny over gender diversity among the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' membership.

The directors' branch, which chooses the five nominees for that Oscar category, is 25 per cent female. Overall, 34 per cent of the academy's more than 10,000 members are women.

"The academy, like our industry, should reflect the world in which we live," said Mr David Heyman, a producer of Barbie.

"The fact that it doesn't is just wrong."

In 2016, the academy - reacting to the #OscarsSoWhite backlash after two straight years of all-white acting nominees - announced its A2020 initiative, meant to double the number of women and people of color among its membership within five years.

In June 2020, it said it had achieved those goals.

Since then, however, the percentage of women in the academy has grown by one percentage point, to 34 per cent.

Academy members may choose not to identify as a man or a woman. Other choices include "agender," "nonbinary," "other," "prefer to self-describe" and "prefer not to say."

The percentage of people of color has dropped one percentage point, to 18 per cent.

The academy is an invitation-only nonprofit that represents acceptance into the highest echelon of the movie industry.

While membership requirements differ for each of its 18 branches, people must be sponsored by two members of the branch they are wishing to join. Oscar nominees are automatically considered for membership.

In an effort to maintain its roughly 10,000-member size, the academy has reduced the number of people it has admitted annually in recent years, from a high of 928 in 2018 to an average of 397 a year since 2020.

In an interview, Ms Meredith Shea, the academy's chief membership, impact and industry officer, said she was not satisfied with the current makeup of the membership, but added that the executive committee of each branch was "still looking at increasing representation across the board."

"I'm taking a new look at what we need to do and the steps that need to be taken," Ms Shea said.

"There's 18 different branches that reflect different industries. So it's looking at what you need to do in visual effects - are we creating a pipeline program there? What's happening in costume and makeup is not what's happening in some of our other disciplines.

"Nothing is slowing, nothing is stopping...It's just making sure that we're doing this right and holistically, because it's never going to be one size fits all."