Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde, Femi Odugbemi, others invited to join OSCARs voting academy

Since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign went viral on Twitter in 2015, there have been incremental attempts to make the awards ceremony more inclusive. It started with a verbal assertion from the former president of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, vowing to double the number of women and black people at the ceremony by the year 2020.

These changes were visible at the awards ceremony last year where the nominations and wins were more diverse than previous years. But there had been significant changes behind the scenes. In 2016, the academy increased the number of people in their voting academy for the first time since their inception. More black people, such as Idris Elba and John Boyega and more women, like Lupita Nyong’o and Ava Duvernay were invited. Last year the academy introduced over a hundred ethnically diverse people within the film industry as members of the new voting class.

This year, in an attempt to build global inclusion, the academy has invited people from around the world, including Nigerian movie director Femi Odugbemi and actress Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde who is said to have been included for recent work like ‘Last Flight To Abuja’.

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