The Hollywood Reporter: How the Globalization of the Academy Shakes Up the Race

In June, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its annual list of filmmakers invited to join its ranks. Both this year and last year, the Academy selected invitees from more than one quarter of the world’s nations to help select award-winners. The organization’s increasingly international composition is “the biggest game changer represented by the new members,” asserts Scott Feinberg in the Hollywood Reporter, because “it was only over the last few years that the Academy began to welcome foreign filmmakers into its fold.” After allegations of racial bias both in their list of nominees and in jokes during the live telecast last year, the Academy promised to reform their organization and “to double number of diverse members by 2020.” Their promise has “changed the game of pursuing Oscars” for movie distributors, notes Feinberg. Indeed, streaming services like Netflix hold several advantages, in both cost and time, over traditional distributors when screening films for an international audience. – YaleGlobal