The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences is the organization behind the Academy Awards, and it consists of thousands of people who work in the movie industry—from actors and directors to hairstylists and PR people. That means The Academy is basically the not-so-shadowy cabal that runs Hollywood, breaking hearts and making dreams come true with a little bit of Oscar glory, and it’s also the group that takes the blame for things like the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. As a matter of fact, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced after that whole mess that her organization would be making some changes in order to reflect the growing diversity of the filmmaking community, and now it looks like some of those changes are taking effect.
As reported by Deadline, The Academy has invited 774 new members to join, bringing the full roster to around 8,000 and increasing the numbers of women and people of color who are included. Gal Gadot, Channing Tatum, Rami Malek, Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, Dwayne Johnson, Riz Ahmed, Adam Driver, Amy Poehler, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart, Jon Hamm, Leslie Jones, Zoë Kravitz, Donnie Yen, Donald Glover, and Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins are just a few of the new members, and while it’s good to see people being recognized for recent high-profile film work, some of the other inclusions are noteworthy for how late they are. For example, why did it take so long for people like Betty White, Warwick Davis, or Takashi Miike to be invited? For years and years, The Academy held Oscars ceremonies without letting the star of Hot In Cleveland, Wicket the Ewok, and the guy who made Audition weigh in on who should win? It’s a shame, but at least that problem has finally been rectified.
You can see the list of actors and directors who have been invited below, and go to the Deadline link to see the full list of names.
Actors
Riz Ahmed
Debbie Allen
Elena Anaya
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Monica Bellucci
Gil Birmingham
Nazanin Boniadi
Daniel Brühl
Maggie Cheung
John Cho
Priyanka Chopra
Matt Craven
Terry Crews
Warwick Davis
Colman Domingo
Adam Driver
Joel Edgerton
Chris Evans
Luke Evans
Fan Bingbing
Elle Fanning
Golshifteh Farahani
Anna Faris
Tom Felton
Rebecca Ferguson
Lou Ferrigno
Gal Gadot
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Jeff Garlin
Spencer Garrett
Domhnall Gleeson
Sharon Gless
Donald Glover
Judy Greer
Rupert Grint
Noel Gugliemi
Jon Hamm
Armie Hammer
Naomie Harris
Leila Hatami
Anne Heche
Lucas Hedges
Chris Hemsworth
Ciarán Hinds
Aldis Hodge
Bryce Dallas Howard
Bonnie Hunt
Jiang Wen
Dwayne Johnson
Leslie Jones
Keegan-Michael Key
Aamir Khan
Irrfan Khan
Salman Khan
Rinko Kikuchi
Zoë Kravitz
Sanaa Lathan
Carina Lau
Tony Leung
Rami Malek
Leslie Mann
Kate McKinnon
Sienna Miller
Janelle Monáe
Michelle Monaghan
Viggo Mortensen
Ruth Negga
Franco Nero
Elizabeth Olsen
Deepika Padukone
Sarah Paulson
Robert Picardo
Amy Poehler
Chris Pratt
Zachary Quinto
Édgar Ramírez
Phylicia Rashad
Margot Robbie
Maya Rudolph
Hiroyuki Sanada
Henry G. Sanders
Rodrigo Santoro
Rade Šerbedžija
Nestor Serrano
Amanda Seyfried
Molly Shannon
Anna Deavere Smith
Hailee Steinfeld
Kristen Stewart
Omar Sy
Wanda Sykes
Channing Tatum
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Lauren Tom
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Paz Vega
Dee Wallace
Ming-Na Wen
Betty White
Rebel Wilson
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
B.D. Wong
Shailene Woodley
Donnie Yen
Directors
Fatih Akin
Adolfo Aristarain
David Ayer
Nabil Ayouch
Siddiq Barmak
Aida Begić
Emmanuelle Bercot
Martin Butler
Patricia Cardoso
Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Derek Cianfrance
Pedro Costa
Garth Davis
Bentley Dean
Lav Diaz
Carlos Diegues
Nelson Pereira dos Santos
Nana Dzhordzhadze
Ildikó Enyedi
Amat Escalante
Safi Faye
Tom Ford
Goutam Ghose
Jessica Hausner
Joanna Hogg
Hannes Holm
Ann Hui
Christine Jeffs
Barry Jenkins
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Kim Ki-duk
Zacharias Kunuk
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina
David Mackenzie
Sharon Maguire
Theodore Melfi
Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brillante Mendoza
Márta Mészáros
Takashi Miike
Orlando Montiel
Jocelyn Moorhouse
Kira Muratova
Héctor Olivera
Idrissa Ouedraogo
Jordan Peele
Mohammad Rasoulof
Eran Riklis
Arturo Ripstein
Guy Ritchie
Anthony Russo
Joseph Russo
Mrinal Se
Cate Shortland
Peter Sollett
Juan Carlos Tabío
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Johnnie To
Tran Anh Hung
Pablo Trapero
Athina Rachel Tsangari
Paula van der Oest
Susanna White
Martin Zandvliet