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 With Sunday’s Oscar show, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will close one of the most contentious awards seasons in its history and open an era of historic change, as the 89-year-old institution launches an ambitious drive to diversify its membership. 
 
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 A Los Angeles Times study shows just how much work the academy has to do if it intends to reflect the audience it serves — and just how aggressive the group’s new goals are. 
 
 In 2012, The Times reported that Oscar voters were 94% white and 77% male. Four years later, the academy has made scant progress: Oscar voters are 91% white and 76% male, according to a new Times study. 
 
 Blacks are about 3% of the academy, up from 2%; Asians and Latinos are each just over 2%, with both groups up slightly. 
 
 The academy has invited more women and minority group members over the last four years, but with its 6,261 voting members appointed for life, the organization’s ranks were on track to remain overwhelmingly white and male for decades. 
 
 Under fire for nominating an all-white slate of actors for two years in a row, the academy last month vowed to double the number of women and minority members by 2020. It also adopted controversial new rules that will allow it to take away voting rights from inactive members. 
 
 “Our goal is to make sure that we are active in bringing in different voices regardless of gender or race or sexual orientation,” academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an interview Thursday. “Inclusiveness in this organization, that is our goal.” 
 
 Doubling the number of women and minority members over the next four years, however, figures to be daunting. 
 
 The academy has about 1,500 women and 535 non-white people who are eligible to vote on the Oscars, according to Times estimates. Based on those findings, doubling their numbers would require inviting at least 375 women and more than 130 people of color each year. 
 
 That would demand a dramatic shift in admissions given that the academy's latest class — touted as the largest and most diverse in its history — was only 322 people, most of them white men. 
 
 Former academy president Hawk Koch says flatly that the targets are “impossible” to reach because of the academy’s stringent membership requirements and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the entertainment industry. 
 
 “There aren’t that many qualified people, period, of any race or gender, to invite each year,” he said. 
 
 Boone Isaacs asserted that the goals are attainable. 
 
 “There are enough qualified people,” she said, adding that academy leaders will “do everything in our power to meet our goals because we know that this is the right thing to do. We’re going to make it happen.” 
 
 For years, the academy has declined to release a list of Oscar voters. In 2012, The Times identified nearly 90% of its membership, confirming each person’s race, sex and age through interviews, academy publications, resumes and biographies. 
 
 Director Spike Lee. (Markus Schreiber / AP Photo) 
 
 The new Times study updated that list by adding the more than 1,000 people invited to join in the last four years and subtracting several hundred others who have died. The resulting list includes more than 5,800 people, a few hundred short of the academy’s official count of members. 
 
 Though the academy did not participate in The Times’ research, a spokeswoman confirmed that the numbers are consistent with the organization’s own internal reviews of its membership. 
 
 In the wake of the 2012 Times story, the academy invited more women and minority group members. But when it announced its most recent Oscar nominations Jan. 14 and once again all 20 nominees in acting categories were white, the academy was faced with a firestorm of criticism and calls for boycotts of the awards telecast. 
 
 Director Spike Lee — who said he would not attend the Academy Awards despite being awarded an honorary Oscar last fall — echoed the complaints of many when he said the fault was less with the academy than with the gatekeepers in Hollywood who control what films are greenlighted for production. 
 
 The branches that decide which movies are made and how they are promoted are overwhelmingly white. Executives (98% white in 2012) Public Relations (96% white in 2012) 
 
 Indeed, The Times’ review of the academy’s membership shows that the academy branches that hold the most power over Oscar season are the least diverse. 
 
 The executive branch, which finances the movies and determines what films warrant an awards campaign, is 98% white. The public relations branch, which strategizes those awards campaigns, is 95% white. 
 
 Other branches reflect the entrenched nature of certain hiring patterns in Hollywood crafts, such as visual effects, which is 98% male, and cinematography, which is 95% male. 
 
 The announcement of the new rules, which the 51-member board of governors enacted in an unscheduled, closed-door meeting Jan. 21, succeeded in quieting some of the criticism of the academy. 
 
 Some civil-rights groups are still planning to protest the show and encouraging those attending to wear black ribbons or armbands. Even so, the telecast producers have booked more than a dozen black presenters and performers, including Morgan Freeman, John Legend, Kevin Hart, Whoopi Goldberg and Quincy Jones. 
 
 Some in the industry applauded the academy taking such dramatic action. 
 
 “It’s not just an important conversation, but a necessary one,” said producer Jeremy Kleiner, co-president of Plan B Entertainment, the production company behind “12 Years a Slave” and “The Big Short.” 
 
 The most male-dominated branches have hardly changed since 2012. Visual Effects (97% male in 2012) Cinematographers (96% male in 2012) Directors (91% male in 2012) 
 
 “Making systemic changes so that the body of the academy is responsive to changes in culture and changes in personnel is smart,” Kleiner added. “And, if you look at the statistics, overdue.” 
 
 But to reach its diversity targets, the academy will confront a major dilemma in drawing members from an industry in which women and minorities are scarce. 
 
 Each of the academy’s 17 branches has detailed requirements for membership under the group’s bylaws. Actors, for instance, must have three film credits, including one in the last five years. Directors need two credits, with one coming in the previous decade. Visual effects artists are required to have eight years of experience in a “key creative position” to qualify. 
 
 A recent report by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism described an “inclusion crisis” at studios, where 97% of film directors are male and 87% are white, where women hold just 21% of top executive positions and non-white actors garner just 27% of speaking roles. 
 
 Jennifer Warren, a 74-year-old actress and director who is a member of the acting branch and who chairs the Alliance of Women Directors, said the academy merely reflects an industry dominated by white men. 
 
 “It’s not the academy — it’s what the academy represents,” she said. “At least they recognize there’s a problem. And at least they’re embarrassed. I think that’s the only thing that will get movement in this industry is to embarrass individuals who are seen to have never hired a person of color or have never hired a woman.” 
 
 Although the academy’s new rules may have tamped down some of the criticism, they also sparked a rebellion among academy veterans, who say the institution’s leadership acted hastily and without hearing from members. 
 
 Some say the new rules, which now invite members for 10-year terms and require that they remain active in the film industry to retain voting rights, smack of another kind of prejudice. 
 
 “They’ve traded one perceived problem — racism — for another one, ageism,” said one longtime academy member who’s still working in the industry and did not want to be identified. 
 
 Boone Isaacs said she did not know how many people would lose their voting rights after the new rules take effect. 
 
 “We know how difficult it is to get movies made,” Boone Isaacs said. “The fact is that there are people who’ve been in this industry for a very long time who are still at the top of their form. This is a process. We are working this all out.” 
 
 Continue reading » 
 
 How lofty are the academy's goals? The academy will need to dramatically increase the number of women and minorities it invites to join each year to meet its goal of doubling their numbers by 2020. Boost annual invitations Women Non-whites 
 
 In March, Boone Isaacs and the rest of the board will meet to consider their next steps before the academy invites its next class of members later in the spring. 
 
 Actors are the academy’s largest and most diverse branch Actors (88% white in 2012) 
 
 The academy itself might be refining some of its proposed changes. In an email obtained by The Times, academy membership coordinator Susan Allen wrote to actors branch member Carol Eve Rossen that the “process for evaluating whether a member will continue as a voting member is evolving.” 
 
 “Every possible aspect of the process is still under discussion, including the definition of ‘active’ and what the start date for involvement in the industry will be,” Allen wrote, referring to the proposed rule change provision that would require members to work in movies during three 10-year periods in order to retain their active status. 
 
 Actors are the academy’s largest and most diverse branch Actors (98% white in 2012) 
 
 “Clearly, they have taken a step back from their knee-jerk reaction to nominations not to their liking,” Rossen, 78, told The Times. “The outrage of the mem bership has to do with loss of community,” she added, noting that many members who may lose their voting rights have long served on committees evaluating documentary and foreign language films. 
 
 “This year will tell a lot,” Koch said. “We’re not going to lower our standards. That’s what keeps the Oscars the Oscars.” 
 
 Times staff writers Kevin Crust, Marisa Gerber, Taylor Goldenstein, Ben Welsh, Amy Kaufman and Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report. 
 
 Contact the reporters 
 
 Graphics by Priya Krishnakumar. Graphics reporting by Sandra Poindexter. Interactive by Jon Schleuss and Armand Emamdjomeh. Design and development by Lily Mihalik and Evan Wagstaff. 
 
 Want more watchdog journalism from The Times? Subscribe today for unlimited digital access » ||||| According to a Times analysis conducted in July, in a single stroke, the 2016 class of invitees took the academy 52% of the way toward its goal of doubling the number of nonwhites in its ranks. As for boosting the representation of women, however, the academy slightly lagged behind pace; the 2016 class brought the academy only about a fifth of the way toward its 2020 target. 
 
 For the academy to meet its own 2020 goals, The Times has estimated that in the next three years the organization will have to invite 85 people of color to become members each year – a seemingly manageable number given that there were some 280 nonwhites in last year’s class alone. 
 
 Hitting the target in terms of female members, however, may prove a higher hurdle. The Times estimates that the academy will need to add 395 women to its ranks per year to reach its target – significantly more than the 314 it invited in 2016. 
 
 Given the persistent lack of diversity in the film industry as a whole, some think that the challenge of diversifying the academy’s membership could grow more difficult, not easier. A 2016 report by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism starkly outlined an “inclusion crisis” at the major studios, where directors are 97% male and 87% white, while women hold 21% of top executive positions and nonwhite actors earn just 27% of speaking roles. 
 
 As the study’s authors bluntly put it, "The film industry still functions as a straight, white boys’ club.” 
 
 3. A number of relatively fresh faces and people best known from TV are likely to make the cut. Still, the academy insists it isn’t changing its standards for membership. 
 
 Along with many longtime industry vets, last year’s class included a number of younger people who have only come onto the scene in the last few years, like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” star John Boyega, as well as some who may be better known for their work in television than in film, such as Tina Fey and America Ferrera. 
 
 The academy prides itself on representing the cream of the crop in the film industry. While membership requirements vary among the individual branches, the academy’s overarching mandate states that candidates must have “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures.” 
 
 Given the historic underrepresentation of women and minorities in Hollywood, however, some have expressed doubt that the academy’s diversity goals can be met without the risk of changing these membership requirements. In an interview with The Times in 2016, former academy President Hawk Koch called the targets “impossible” to reach, saying, “There aren’t that many qualified people, period, of any race or gender, to invite each year.” 
 
 But even as the boundary between film and television continues to blur, the academy leadership has consistently maintained it will not alter the criteria for membership. Hudson says she is confident that there are still many highly qualified film industry professionals out there who have yet to be brought into the fold. 
 
 “There are so many artists who were not admitted in the past because we had a limit on how many new members we invited each year,” she told The Times last month. “So with the elimination of those [quotas] and the aggressive pursuit of excellence by all of our members, I think we will be able to expand in a more inclusive way for several years.” 
 
 4. Much of that expansion will continue to come from outside of the United States. 
 
 In recent years, as part of its effort to transform itself into a more international organization, the academy has supplemented its traditional membership process with a global recruitment campaign. Of last year’s class, more than 40% of the new members came from abroad – both established filmmakers and actors like J.A. Bayona and Alicia Vikander as well as many people far less well known to American moviegoers – representing 59 countries around the globe. 
 
 Not only does such a global expansion broaden the academy’s pool of potential members, bringing its diversity goals closer within reach, but it furthers the group’s mission to become the preeminent organization representing the film community around the world, not just in Los Angeles. 
 
 For foreign invitees, such as Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Mansour, who was invited to join last year, being brought into Hollywood’s most exclusive club can be a life-changing experience. “Sometimes as a woman, and especially one from a foreign country, it gets hard for them to find a project that fits you as a director,” Mansour told The Times last year. “[The academy] is the most prestigious organization in the world. It anchors you in. It makes me more relevant. People actually take you seriously.” 
 
 But, as the academy extends its reach across the globe, it remains to be seen to what extent this more international membership may or may not be reflected in the kinds of films and performances that earn Oscar recognition.
– The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has promised to diversify its membership—but making good on that promise is slow-going: A Los Angeles Times analysis of 5,800 of the academy's 6,261 voting members shows that 91% are white and 76% are male, only a slight improvement from 2012, when 94% of voters were white and 77% were male. What's more, the academy's executive branch is 98% white and its public relations branch is 95% white. Meanwhile, about 87% of lead actors, 87% of directors, and 92% of writers for the top 163 films of 2014 were white, according to a new UCLA study, per the Washington Post. "What doesn't interest them is the current black experience or black culture," filmmaker Rod Lurie says of the academy, which hands out its annual honors on Sunday. "A movie like Straight Outta Compton doesn't stand a chance." The UCLA study also found that women directed only 3% of 2014's major films. The academy says it will double the number of women and minority voters (now 1,500 and 535, respectively) by 2020.