Movie Industry Professionals Invited to Join Film Academy
Four hundred and eighty seven members of the global film community — among them Killers of the Moon star Lily Gladstone, Past Lives filmmaker Celine Song, CAA managing partner Chris Silbermann and SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland — are receiving invitations on Tuesday to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization announced this morning.
“We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of new members,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “These remarkably talented artists and professionals from around the world have made a significant impact on our filmmaking community.”
Invitees who wish to accept, as the vast majority tend to, will join the specific branch of the Academy that invited them. Eight were invited by more than one branch — Michael Andrews (film editors and short films/feature animation), Bahrām Beyzāêi (directors and writers), Ilker Çatak (directors and writers), Nadim Cheikhrouha (documentary and producers), Cord Jefferson (directors and writers), Celine Song (directors and writers), Justine Triet (directors and writers) and Christine Turner (documentary and short films/feature animation) — and will have to pick one.
Among this year’s invitees are 19 Academy Award winners, several of whom were presented with a statuette at the 96th Oscars earlier this year: best supporting actress (The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph), original screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall’s Triet and Arthur Harari), adapted screenplay (American Fiction’s Jefferson), documentary feature (20 Days in Mariupol’s Mstyslav Chernov), international feature (The Zone of Interest’s James Wilson), animated short (War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko’s Brad Booker), sound (The Zone of Interest’s Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers), production design (Poor Things’ Shona Heath, Zsuzsa Mihalek and James Price), costume design (Poor Things’ Holly Waddington) and visual effects (Godzilla Minus One’s Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki).
Other notables on this year’s list include the actors Jessica Alba, Sandra Hüller, Greta Lee, Kate Mara and Catherine O’Hara; filmmakers Alice Diop, Kogonada, S.S. Rajamouli, Boots Riley, Emma Seligman and David Yates; Tom Ackerley, who produced Barbie alongside his wife and LuckyChap Entertainment partner Margot Robbie; David Hemingson, screenwriter of The Holdovers, and Tony McNamara, scribe of Poor Things; casting director Jennifer Euston; choreographers Mandy Moore (who oversaw dance on La La Land and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour), Kenny Ortega (a longtime collaborator of Michael Jackson), Prem Rakshith (the designer of the famous “Naatu Naatu” dance in RRR) and Woo-Ping Yuen (whose credits include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix and both volumes of Kill Bill); Marvel Studios head of technology Eddie Drake; Focus Features’ senior vp, publicity Elaine Patterson and senior vp, marketing/media Vilija Vitartas; and several stuntmen and stuntwomen.
Prominent executives who were tapped include Sasha Bühler (Netflix director of international films), Michelle Byrd (the Producers Guild of America’s national executive director, formerly of IFP), Iris Knobloch (the Cannes Film Festival’s current and first female president), Tim League (founder of the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain), Harvey Mason Jr. (the Recording Academy’s CEO), Ben Roberts (the British Film Institute’s CEO), Peter Safran (DC Studios’ co-chair and co-CEO), Cooper Samuelson (Blumhouse Productions’ president of feature films), Ellen Stutzman (Writers Guild of America-West executive director) and Kim Yutani (the Sundance Institute’s director of programming).
And, as the Academy increasingly embraces artists representatives (agents, managers and lawyers), good news came to the likes of John Carrabino (Renee Zellweger’s longtime manager), Jay Gassner (co-head of talent at UTA), Laurent Grégoire (Marion Cotillard’s longtime French agent), Linda Lichter (a veteran entertainment lawyer), Doug Lucterhand (co-head of talent at WME), Evelyn O’Neill (Greta Gerwig’s longtime manager and Lady Bird producer), Cynthia Lee Pett (co-CEO of Brillstein Entertainment Partners), Maggie Pisacane (co-head of WME’s documentary group) and Douglas Urbanski (Gary Oldman’s longtime manager and Darkest Hour producer).
In the aftermath of the Oscars So White controversy of 2015 and 2016, the Academy began inviting considerably more — and more diverse — people to join its ranks than it ever had before: 683 in 2016 (more than double the previous high), 774 in 2017, 928 in 2018 (still the all-time record) and 842 in 2019. But after meeting its goal of doubling the number of women and people of color in its membership by 2020, the organization returned to smaller lists — 395 in 2021, 397 in 2022 and 398 in 2023. This year, some branches kept their numbers low (makeup artists/hairstylists recruited just four new members), but others went much higher (led by short films/feature animation with 38 and documentary with seven), and in total more people were approached than in any year since 2020, when 819 invitations went out.
Lest anyone think the Academy is no longer prioritizing inclusion, the organization provided statistics about this year’s list that demonstrate it is still top of mind: of this year’s invitees, 44 percent identify as women (up from 40 percent in 2023), 41 percent are non-white (up from 34 percent in 2023) and 56 percent are from countries or territories outside of the United States (up from 52 percent in 2023).
Moreover, six branches invited more women than men (actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary, executives and makeup artists/hairstylists), four invited more non-white people than white people (actors, directors, documentary and writers) and 14 invited more non-Americans than Americans (actors, casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, documentary, film editing, makeup/hairstylists, music, producers, production design, short films/feature animation, visual effects and writers).
If all of those who received invitations this year accept, the overall membership of the Academy will be 35 percent women, 20 percent non-white and 20 percent non-American.
Here is a full list of the artists and executives who are being invited to join the Academy this year (*denotes someone who has been invited to join more than one branch).