Which Of Sunday's Oscar Presenters Are Members Of The Academy -- And Which Are NOT!

This Sunday, the Oscars are going to bring out a wide range of diverse presenters and performers to help compensate for the all-white lineup of their acting nominees.

Since The Academy Members Project is the largest public list of Oscar Voters -- and of NON-Voters -- that you’ll find on the web, we thought we’d take a look at the roster to find out which of these presenters are members of Academy and which are not.

(Note that we’ve also done a similar analysis for this year’s nominees).

What we found is that over a third of the announced presenters and performers are NOT Academy members yet. Which begs the question: If the Academy is supposed to represent the best artists in the industry, why do they have to go outside their ranks so often for the telecast?

• Chris Rock (HOST) - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• J.J. Abrams - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Patricia Arquette - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Abraham Attah - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Sacha Baron Cohen - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Cate Blanchett - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Emily Blunt - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Louis C.K. - UNCERTAIN (source).
• Steve Carell - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Henry Cavill - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Priyanka Chopra - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Common - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Russell Crowe - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Benicio del Toro - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Chris Evans - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Tina Fey - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Morgan Freeman - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Lady Gaga - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Jennifer Garner - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Whoopi Goldberg - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Ryan Gosling - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Louis Gossett, Jr. - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Dave Grohl - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Kevin Hart - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Quincy Jones - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Michael B. Jordan - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Byung-hun Lee - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• John Legend - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Jared Leto - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Rachel McAdams - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Julianne Moore - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Olivia Munn - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Dev Patel - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Eddie Redmayne - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Daisy Ridley - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Margot Robbie - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Jason Segel - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Andy Serkis - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Sarah Silverman - UNCERTAIN (source).
• J.K. Simmons - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Sam Smith - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Charlize Theron - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Jacob Tremblay - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Sofia Vergara - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Kerry Washington - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• The Weeknd - NOT A MEMBER (source).
• Pharrell Williams - VOTING MEMBER! (source).
• Reese Witherspoon - VOTING MEMBER! (source).

For more information about who is -- and is not -- a member of the academy, check out The Academy Members Project: The largest public list of Oscar Voters you’ll find on the web.

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Go Read My Guest Post At Awards Daily!

Sasha Stone and Ryan Adams at Awards Daily were kind enough to let me do a guest post about the Academy’s branch statistics and the official count of the number of voters for this year’s Oscar race.

It’s a great opportunity to help publicize The Academy Members Project, and a really generous act on their part, as their readership is exponentially larger than my own. Sasha is one of the first writers that I started reading when I became interested in the Oscars, and her site reaches a lot of long-time Oscar watchers who may be able to help us with our research.

So please help me send some love back their way by checking out the article and leaving a comment. They love comments!

You can find the guest post HERE.

Thanks everyone!

Academy’s Historic Action To Increase Diversity

Big news out of the Academy to increase diversity today. You can read their full statement on their website, but here are the main points as I understand them:

• Goal of doubling the number of women and diverse members by 2020
• New members will be granted voting status for 10 years.
• Voting status can be renewed for another 10 years if the member has been active during that decade.
• Members can receive Lifetime votings status after three ten-year terms.
• Members can also receive Lifetime voting status if they have been nominated or won an Oscar.
• These same standards will be applied retroactively to current members.
• Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status.
• Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all privileges of membership -- except voting.
• These changes take effect after this year’s Oscars have been completed.
• New members can still be added through the existing process of getting two sponsors.
• Additionally, the academy will begin “an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.”
• Three new seats are being added to the Board Of Governors. They will be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Board for three-year terms
• New members will also be added to the executive and board committees of the Academy’s branches.

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An Unnoticed Bit Of Brilliance In Cheryl Boone Isaacs’ Latest Statement

We’ve all been applauding Cheryl Boone Isaacs’ most recent statement promising changes to the membership of the Academy. But as someone who spends his days poring over lists of Oscar voters for The Academy Members Project, my eyes were drawn to a particularly brilliant move that she makes in the third paragraph.

After calling for changes to diversify the membership recruitment process, she says:

“This isn’t unprecedented for the Academy. In the ‘60s and ‘70s it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.”

At first glance, she’s just giving a history lesson. One that I remember reading about because this “push for younger members” in the ‘60s and ‘70s is how Dustin Hoffman and Jeff Bridges first became Oscar voters (and as I learned recently, Peter Bart as well.)

And then I started to do the math: if these younger members were in their 20’s or 30’s when they got these special invites, how old would they be today? Bridges is 66. Hoffman is 78. Bart is 83. And it stands to reason that all of their “classmates” would be older than 63.

That’s right, 63.

63, that much-publicized, often criticized, median Oscar voter age that gets thrown around twitter. Those older voters that the pundits tell us are responsible for all of Oscar’s “wrong” choices. The ones that are mocked for being out of touch. They were recruited.

And they were recruited, she tells us, precisely to keep the Academy “vital and relevant”.

And in reminding us of this history, she speaks to both sides of the controversy. To today’s youth, she sends a message: These old folks actually did good work. They’re members for a reason. And perhaps she sends a caution as well: Age is coming for you too. It won’t be long before you’ll be the out of touch dinosaurs that you’re criticizing today.

And to the old folks, the longtime members who may bristle at the idea of messing with the academy’s “standards”, she sends a reminder: You were recruited then, just like they are being recruited now. This is how you got here too!

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Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs' Statement On Diversity

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs tweeted a statement on diversity today, which included promises for new recruitment for membership. We here at The Academy Members Project are thrilled at the possibilities this opens up!

Fun Fact: I've actually researched the recruiting of younger members in the 60's & 70's that she refers to here. Some of the new recruits that they were touting at the time included Dustin Hoffman and Jeff Bridges. (Of course, that was Hoffman back when he was The Graduate, not Grandpa Focker, and Bridges from The Last Picture Show, not True Grit)!

Here’s the full statement:

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