Jessica Alba, Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph Shockingly Join Film Academy!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also known as Hollywood’s most elite circle, is once again opening its prestigious doors, by extending membership invitations to 487 new members as announced on Tuesday.

Spanning across 57 nations, the list of potential members includes well-known figures such as Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jessica Alba and Catherine O’Hara, as well as a number of accomplished yet less-celebrated individuals, which includes artists, film industry executives, and professionals. The diverse group includes 71 nominees and 19 winners of the renowned Academy Award.

In its ongoing effort to foster greater inclusivity, even after achieving its diversity targets set after the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, the Academy has disclosed that 44% of the newly invited class are women, and 41% belong to underrepresented ethnic or racial groups, an increase from the 40% and 34% respectively, recorded in 2023.

More than half of the invitees this year are from outside the United States, demonstrating the Academy’s persistent commitment towards international expansion. This has resulted in the Academy’s global membership constituting 20% of the total.

“We are delighted to welcome the new class of members to the Academy this year,” remarked Academy Chief Executive Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang in a joint statement. “These extraordinarily talented individuals from across the globe have significantly contributed to our film-making community.”

Although the count of invitees this year is considerably more than the yearly invitee groups in past decades, which were typically limited to around 100 people, it is about half the size of the record-breaking 2018 class that had 928 members. Since achieving its post-#OscarSoWhite goal of doubling the number of women and individuals of color in its membership in 2020, the Academy has decreased the size of its recent classes to ensure it can continue to support its rapidly expanding membership.

Including the incoming class, 35% of the Academy’s members are female, and 20% belong to underrepresented ethnic or racial groups, thus maintaining and slightly advancing the previous year’s standards.

This year, more women were invited than men in six branches: actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary filmmakers, executives and makeup artists and hairstylists. Four branches – actors, directors, documentary filmmakers, and writers – had a majority of their candidates from underrepresented ethnic or racial communities.

In the actors branch, the invitees include “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Gladstone, the first Native American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, and Sandra Hüller, a German actor and nominee for “Anatomy of a Fall”, along with Randolph, who bagged the supporting actress award for “The Holdovers”.

In the directors branch, invitations were extended to Justine Triet, who won the Oscar for original screenplay this year for “Anatomy of a Fall” and was also invited to the writers branch along with her partner and the film’s co-writer, Arthur Harari. Other notable invitees include filmmakers S.S. Rajamouli (“RRR”), Celine Song (“Past Lives”), Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”) and Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”).

Interestingly, two significant figures who were involved in the historic strikes of writers and actors last year have been invited into the executive branch: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, and Ellen Stutzman, the chief negotiator for the Writers Guild of America.

If all the invitees accept their invitations, the Academy’s total membership will elevate to 10,910, which includes 9,934 voting members.