The Academy Members Project Branch Statistics

(About) (Origins) (Branch Statistics) (Progress Updates) ( A ) ( B ) ( C ) ( D ) ( E ) ( F ) ( G ) ( H ) ( I ) ( J ) ( K ) ( L ) ( M ) ( N ) ( O ) ( P ) ( Q ) ( R ) ( S ) ( T ) ( U ) ( V ) ( W ) ( X ) ( Y ) ( Z ) (Non-Members)

Pictured: Hawk Koch is the President of the Academy. Modern audiences will be interested in his producing credits, which range from Source Code to Wayne’s World to Collateral Damage, while fans of classical films will be interested to learn that he served as a dialogue coach for Rosemary’s Baby. In between, he’s worked on projects such as Chinatown, The Way We Were and Heaven Can Wait.

The Academy’s Branches

The Academy consists of 6,608 members (as of the 84th Oscars) who are divided into 15 branches, with three additional classifications for At Large Members (who get to vote for the Oscars), and Associate and Retired Members (who do NOT get to vote on the Oscars):




Since most people are only interested in the current voting members, the Retired and Associate members are often left out of the statistics that are reported in newspapers, leaving us with 5,783 voting members from the 15 branches and the At-Large members:




While the picture above is factually accurate, I sometimes wonder if it contributes to misunderstandings about the Academy. For the general public who is already accustomed to associating films primarily with their actors, it is perhaps too easy to lose sight of the potential impact of the smaller branches. Yes, actors make up the largest single branch, but they are still only 20% of the Academy.

To keep myself from falling into this trap, I have begun imagining the branches in clusters. It’s not a perfect system, but the chart below reminds me to think about the Academy in different ways. For example, when I combine the producers, executives and public relations branches, they collectively make up a larger voting bloc than the actors do, lest I forget that the movie industry is as much about business as it is about art. Similarly, while the technical and craft specialists may be broken up into different branches, they constitute a greater proportion of the Academy than the famous directors that get labeled as auteurs. And while documentarians, animators and musicians may not have that much in common, it would be foolish to completely disregard the number of Oscar votes that come from the top left quarter of this chart.




Branch Statistics

Actors Branch: 1172 Members.

Art Directors Branch: 367 Members. Includes art directors, production designers, set decorators and costume designers.

Cinematographers Branch: 206 Members.

Directors Branch: 369 Members.

Documentary Branch: 166 Members

Executives Branch: 442 Members

Film Editors Branch: 224 Members

Makeup Artists And Hairstylists Branch: 121 Members

Music Branch: 232 Members

Producers Branch: 450 Members

Public Relations Branch: 368 Members

Short Films And Feature Animation Branch: 349 Members

Sound Branch: 401 Members.

Visual Effects Branch: 294 Members

Writers Branch: 376 Members

At Large Members: 246 Members

Associate Members: 152 Members. (Note that these members do not vote on the Oscars)

Retired Members: 673 Members. (Note that these members do not vote on the Oscars)


(About) (Origins) (Branch Statistics) (Progress Updates) ( A ) ( B ) ( C ) ( D ) ( E ) ( F ) ( G ) ( H ) ( I ) ( J ) ( K ) ( L ) ( M ) ( N ) ( O ) ( P ) ( Q ) ( R ) ( S ) ( T ) ( U ) ( V ) ( W ) ( X ) ( Y ) ( Z ) (Non-Members)

Know of an Academy member that we have missed? Think we have included someone who shouldn’t be here? The Academy Members Project is a work in progress, and welcomes your input! Additions, suggestions, corrections and verifications may be submitted in the comments section, or by emailing nevertooearlymoviepredictions@gmail.com.
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