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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is inviting 487 artists and executives, including 21 in the music branch, to join the organization.
The invitations spotlight the Academy’s ongoing commitment to representation, inclusion and equity. Of the 2024 class, 44% identify as women (up from 40% in last year’s new member invited class), 41% belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities (up from 34% last year) and 56% are from 56 countries and territories outside the U.S. (up from 52% last year).
The music branch was one of 14 branches that extended the majority of their invitations to candidates from countries or territories outside the U.S.
Six branches (not including music) invited more women than men. Four branches (again not including music) extended the majority of their invitations to members of underrepresented ethnic or racial communities.
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The Academy notes that demographic information is provided by the candidate when possible or projected through research and will be confirmed by members upon acceptance. In keeping with past policy, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2024. This is seen as a sign of the Academy’s laser focus on boosting its diversity numbers.
If all 2024 invitees accept membership, the total number of members (including emeritus members) will be 10,910. The number of voting members will be 9,934.
Likewise, if all 2024 invitees accept membership, 35% of the Academy will identify as women; 20% will be from underrepresented ethnic or racial communities; and 20% will be from countries or territories outside the U.S.
“We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of new members to the Academy,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “These remarkably talented artists and professionals from around the world have made a significant impact on our filmmaking community.”
Eight individuals have been invited to join the Academy by multiple branches. These individuals must select one branch upon accepting membership.
There are 71 Oscar nominees, including 19 winners, among the invitees.
Here’s a complete list of the 21 individuals who have been invited to join the music branch.
Michael K. Bauer – Cassandro, The Equalizer 3
Stephen Bray – The Color Purple, Psycho III
Anthony Chue – Man on the Edge, G Storm
Gary M. Clark – Flora and Son, Sing Street
Marius de Vries – Navalny, CODA
Jerskin Fendrix – Poor Things
Simon Franglen – Avatar: The Way of Water, The Magnificent Seven
Jo Yeong-wook – Decision to Leave, Hunt
Shari Johanson – Maybe I Do, All Together Now
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – All of Us Strangers, Living
Fabrizio Mancinelli – Il Viaggio Leggendario, The Boat
Diego Navarro – The Cuckoo’s Curse, The Wasteland
Martin Phipps – Napoleon, The Princess
Plínio Profeta – Desapega!, Nosso Sonho
Philippe Rombi – Driving Madeleine, Joyeux Noël
David Sardy – The Beekeeper, Zombieland
Katrina Marie Schiller – Wonka, Black Mass
Carl Sealove – Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, The Human Trial
Ryan Shore – Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World, Zombie Town
Kubilay Uner – American Traitor: The Trail of Axis Sally, Force of Nature
Dan Wilson – American Symphony, Love Again
The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday (June 24) that CEO Bill Kramer will continue in his role through July 2028. Kramer’s contract, up for renewal in 2025, was approved one year early due to what the Academy calls “his exceptional leadership and significant contributions.” “Bill […]
Quincy Jones is set to receive an honorary Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ 15th Governors Awards on Sunday, Nov. 17, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood. This year’s other honorees, voted on by the Academy’s board of governors, are casting director Juliet Taylor; filmmaker and philanthropist Richard Curtis (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award) and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, best known for the James Bond franchise (the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award).
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“The recipients of this year’s Governors Awards have set the bar incredibly high across their remarkable careers, and the Academy’s board of governors is thrilled to recognize them with Oscars,” Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement. Of Jones, she added, “Quincy Jones’ artistic genius and relentless creativity have made him one of the most influential musical figures of all time.”
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This is the second honorary Oscar for Jones, 91, who was voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. Jones accepted that award on the Oscar telecast in 1995 from his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey. He said in part, “This moment, this evening, this spot where I stand tonight was not my destination when I was young and full of vinegar. I did not engineer this journey. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I could even see this far. And now that I’m older and full of wonder, I can see that maybe other forces were at the wheel.”
Jones has received seven Oscar nominations, but has yet to win a competitive Oscar (which is the reason he is not officially an EGOT). Nonetheless, Jones has made Oscar history many times. He was the first Black musician to be hired as music director on the annual Oscar telecast.
In 1967, Jones became the first Black composer to receive an Oscar nomination for best original song for “The Eyes of Love” from Banning. (His collaborator, Bob Russell, was the first Black lyricist to be nominated.) That same year, Jones became only the third Black composer to be nominated in a scoring category, for In Cold Blood. (The first two Black composers to land scoring nods were Duke Ellington, for Paris Blues, and Calvin Jackson, for The Unsinkable Molly Brown).
Jones has received two more nods in scoring categories, for The Wiz (1978) and The Color Purple (1985). He has also received two more nods for best original song, for the title song from For Love of Ivy (which he also co-wrote with Russell) and “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” from The Color Purple. Jones is, to this day, the only Black composer with three nods in scoring categories. He is one of two Black songwriters with three nods for best original song. (The other is Lionel Richie, one of his collaborators on “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).”)
Jones received a seventh Oscar nod as a producer of the 1985 film The Color Purple.
He has won all of the other major entertainment awards – 28 Grammys (spanning from 1964 to 2019), a Primetime Emmy (for composing music for the landmark 1977 miniseries Roots) and a Tony (for serving as a producer of the revival of The Color Purple in 2016).
Of the other honorees, Yang said: “The selection of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli is a testament to their success as producers of the fan-favorite Bond series and their contribution to the industry’s theatrical landscape. Richard Curtis is a brilliant comedic storyteller whose tremendous charitable efforts embody the meaning of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Juliet Taylor has cast iconic and beloved films and paved a new path for the field. Their profound love of cinema and indelible contribution to our art form make these five individuals truly deserving of these honors.”
Curtis’ film credits include Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually. He received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Four Weddings and a Funeral. Curtis is the co-founder of Comic Relief U.K. and USA; his fundraising work over 40 years has helped raise more than $2 billion. In 2005, he co-created Make Poverty History and helped produce the Live 8 concerts. Most recently, he co-founded the group Project Everyone, giving practical support to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and established the ethical investment campaign Make My Money Matter.
Taylor is a prolific casting director who is behind some of the most acclaimed casts in film history. Some notable credits from her 50-year career include Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Big, Sleepless in Seattle and Schindler’s List. She has worked with directors including James L. Brooks, Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Wilson and Broccoli of EON Productions are producers of the James Bond film series. They have produced some of the most successful 007 films ever, including including Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die. (The last-three named films all yielded Oscar winners for best original song, for Adele‘s “Skyfall,” Sam Smith‘s “Writing’s on the Wall” and Billie Eilish‘s “No Time to Die,” respectively.) Wilson and Broccoli are directors of the Broccoli Foundation, founded by Dana and Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli to support the arts, medicine and education. Cubby Broccoli received the Thalberg Award in 1981. Barbara Broccoli is the second woman to receive the Thalberg Award (following filmmaker Kathleen Kennedy in 2018).
The Honorary Award is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences of any discipline, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities.”
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is presented to creative producers “whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”
Slash was one of the highlights of Ryan Gosling‘s show-stealing “I’m Just Ken” performance at the 2024 Oscars, but according to the actor, the Guns N’ Roses guitarist barely made it to the event.
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During his Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance Wednesday night (May 1), Gosling revealed that leading up to the show, he felt anxious about the flamboyant number, which featured dozens of backup dancers, Barbie head cutouts and audience participation, in addition to Slash shredding on guitar toward the end.
“You were nervous about how it would come off, right?” Kimmel asked, to which Gosling jokingly replied, “I wonder why.”
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“We had to have Slash,” the La La Land star continued. “He’s an enigma. It was very tense. He had a gig in China the night before and then one in Thailand the night after. So it was like, ‘Slash is never going to be able to be here.’ He wasn’t at rehearsal.”
As viewers saw on Oscars night March 10, Slash did end up making it to the show. Behind the scenes, Gosling says he was relieved — but he didn’t even get the chance to debrief with the rock star after it was all over. “Suddenly, as I was walking into dress rehearsal, I saw a guitar case and it had a skull with a top hat on it,” he recalled. “And I knew that Slash had arrived. Then after the show, he was gone.”
“I’m Just Ken” was one of five tracks nominated for best original song at this year’s Academy Awards, where another Barbie track, Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “What Was I Made For?,” ended up taking the prize. The sister-brother duo was the first to perform onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, while Gosling, Slash, Mark Ronson and Co. served as the final performance.
Gosling’s next project post-Barbie is Fall Guy, which hits theaters Friday (May 3). He recently revealed his favorite Taylor Swift song in honor of his character in the film’s love for the pop star, as did costar Emily Blunt.
“‘All Too Well’ right now has a real soft spot in my heart,” he told Fandango in April, while Blunt said, “‘Cruel Summer’ is pretty up there for me.”
Watch Gosling’s full Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview below.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced several rule changes on Monday (April 22), including a very welcome one in the best original category, whereby “three composers will be allowed to receive individual statuettes if, in rare circumstances, they all contributed fully to the score.” Previously, three composers were required to submit as a group and only one Oscar statuette was awarded.
Now, wait a minute, you may be saying. Just three years ago, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste won best original score for Soul. And, yes, all three composers won Oscars – but, incredibly, they had to share one statuette. (Reznor and Ross graciously let Batiste have it, since he hadn’t won an Oscar before. Reznor and Ross had won a decade earlier in the same category for The Social Network.)
As we pointed out a few years ago, “The addition of a third collaborator (Batiste) on Soul meant that they couldn’t each take home an Oscar. That’s unfortunate, because that cross-genre collaboration is what many found most attractive about the score.”
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The Academy, clinging to tradition, prefers to see individual winners in this category, but with today’s rule change, there is a mechanism in place for a three-member team to be awarded.
Here’s the rule from the Oscar rulebook: “No more than one statuette will normally be given in the original score category. A second statuette may be awarded when two credited composers function as equal collaborators, each contributing fully to the original dramatic underscore for the film. The music branch executive committee has the right, in what it alone determines to be a very rare and extraordinary circumstance, to award a third statuette to three individuals who functioned as equal collaborators in the creation of the original score and do not work together as a recognized band or group.
“In cases where three or more credited composers function as equal collaborators in a recognized band, a single statuette may be awarded to the group. Each credited composer in the band must agree to the single ‘group statuette’ option by signing and returning a ‘group award form’ prior to the submission deadline.”
There have been five other times when three-person teams won scoring awards, most recently at the 1987 Oscars when Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne and Cong Su won best original score for The Last Emperor.
Four-person teams have won scoring Oscars on three occasions. The Beatles won best original song score for Let It Be (1970); Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal and Sid Ramin won best scoring of a musical picture for West Side Story (1961); and Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold and Leo Shuken won best scoring for Stagecoach (1939). Those four-person teams would not benefit from today’s rule change.
The Academy also announced that the shortlist for best original score will increase from 15 to 20 titles, though the shortlist for best original song will remain at 15 titles.The Academy also announced that Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 will be the submission deadline for both music (original score) and music (original song) categories – which are the categories’ official names.
Other awards rules changes include:
Animated feature films submitted in the international feature film category are now eligible for consideration in the animated feature film category if eligibility requirements outlined for both categories are met.
The new eligibility period for the international feature film category is Nov. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024.
In the writing categories, a final shooting script will now be required for submission.
Changes were also made to the testimonial awards presented at the Governors Awards. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given to a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production, will now be presented as an Oscar statuette.
The definition of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was revised to clarify the broad term humanitarian efforts; the award will be “given to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry by promoting human welfare and contributing to rectifying inequities.”
Two special awards presented at the Scientific and Technical Awards have been renamed, shedding the names of the people for whom the awards were originally named. The Gordon E. Sawyer Award is now “Scientific and Technical Lifetime Achievement Award.” The John A. Bonner Award is now “Scientific and Technical Service Award.”
The 2025 Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, one week earlier than the 2024 show, which was held on Sunday, March 10. And here’s good news for East Coasters who liked this year’s earlier starting time for the Oscars: The 2025 show will again begin at 7 p.m. ET.
The 2024 show clocked in at 3 hours 22 minutes, which means East Coasters were able to watch the full show and still turn in at a reasonable hour. In years past, millions of East Coast film fans had to choose between sticking around for the announcement of best picture and getting to bed before midnight.
The show will again be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, its home since 2002 (except for the pandemic-era show in 2021, when it was held at Union Station in Los Angeles).
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Nominations will be announced on Jan. 17, 2025 – just five days after nominations-round voting closes. Most awards shows take longer between the close of voting and the announcement of the nominations. The Oscars’ approach allows voters more time to see eligible films and make informed choices. (The Oscars take a bit more time to tally final-round ballots, which are due Feb. 18, 2025 — 12 days before the big show.)
This will be the second year that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will have Representation and Inclusion Standards (for which the Academy uses the acronym RAISE) to be eligible in the best picture category. As the Academy notes, these standards “are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen to better reflect the diverse global population.”
Thursday, Nov. 14 is the final day to submit a confidential Inclusion Standards form. Last year, the Academy required that producers meet at least two of these four standards: on-screen representation, themes and narratives; creative leadership and project team; industry access and opportunities; and audience development. (Read a detailed summary of the RAISE standards on the Academy’s site.)
Below are key dates for the 2024 Oscars season. (The Academy cautions that all dates are subject to change.)
Thursday, Nov. 14: General entry, best picture, RAISE submission deadline
Sunday, Nov. 17: Governors Awards
Monday, Dec. 9: Preliminary voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Friday, Dec. 13: Preliminary voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Tuesday, Dec. 17: Oscars shortlists announcement
Tuesday, Dec. 31: Eligibility period ends
Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025: Nominations voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Sunday, Jan. 12, 2005: Nominations voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Friday: Jan. 17, 2005: Nominations announcement
Monday, Feb. 10, 2005: Oscars Nominees Luncheon
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025: Finals voting begins 9 a.m. PT
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025: Finals voting ends 5 p.m. PT
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025: Scientific and Technical Awards
Sunday, March 2, 2025: 97th Oscars
Madonna celebrated yet another successful Oscars afterparty via Instagram on Monday (March 11), and the Queen of Pop also shouted out one of the night’s biggest winners. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Oscar Party was FUN! Not exactly a night off for a girl that i needs […]
Ice Spice stunned at the 2024 Oscars and the Vanity Fair afterparty in Los Angeles Sunday (March 10, but not everyone was a fan of her wardrobe selections.
The Bronx native wasn’t taking any criticism for her looks, as Ice Spice clapped back at someone she believed was dissing her Dolce & Gabbana lace dress from the post-show shindig.
“I wish her stylist would try harder… same lace bodysuit back to back,” one person wrote on X. Hours later, the 24-year-old responded to the critic. “lets see u b—-s in custom dolce,” she fired back on Monday (March 11). Her reply had more than 74,000 likes at press time.
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The fan — who goes by 1800Viagra on X — had their replies flooded and they backed off the original commentary claiming this was a misunderstanding. “I’m not even mad at you omg,” they wrote.
The “Princess Diana” rapper eventually apologized for lashing out, claiming her feelings were hurt. “Srry 4 bein a meanie i was only tryna hurt ur feelings bc u hurt mine,” she wrote.
Ice Spice seemed to love the black lace gown that hugged her voluptuous figure, as she showed off plenty of clips and photos from her first Oscars with a slideshow posted to Instagram on Monday.
“Effortlessss,” SZA commented on the post.
On the music side, Ice Spice is turning her focus back to her debut album, which she said last week she has finished recording.
She teased fans about Y2K with a Monday tweet revealing that another superstar feature had been completed. “Another sick feature turned in #y2k,” Spice penned.
Y2K is without a release date so far, but is expected to arrive later this year. “I think this is some of my best work,” she previously told Billboard, while also hinting that “it’s not going to be too long — it’s going to be sweet and to the point.”
The “Munch” rapper — who was the Billboard Women in Music Hitmaker honoree this year — scored four top 10 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023 alone.
Find Ice Spice’s fan exchange below.
srry 4 bein a meanie i was only tryna hurt ur feelings bc u hurt mine :’P— ice spice ☆ (@icespicee_) March 12, 2024
She’s an Academy Award nominee. He’s just Ken. In a sweet video from the 2024 Oscars Sunday (March 10), Marcus Mumford swept Carey Mulligan — whose performance in Maestro was nominated this year for best actress — off her feet in an adorable ode to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The clip finds the Mumford & Sons […]