The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 842 new members, half of whom are women, reports Deadline. The number is down from last year’s 928, according to a latest report.
Among actors, new names that have been added include Sterling K. Brown, Lady Gaga, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy, Tom Holland, Anupam Kher, Damian Lewis and Archie Panjabi.
Similarly, in directors, India’s Zoya Akhtar has been invited as well on the basis of her work. Others included in the list are names like Adele (Adkins) for Skyfall, Annie Lenox, Mark Ronson and many more.
Other categories include writers, sound, short films and feature animation, production design, producers and marketing and public relations, makeup artists and hairstylists, film editors, executives, documentary, costume designers, cinematographers, and casting directors.
Notes Deadline: “Like last year, new members come from a total of 59 countries as the Academy continues to reshape itself as a visible global organization. Overall membership will now be over 9000, although the Academy did not provide an official statistic since technically this list is for invitees who must first accept the invitation to join.”
As far as Zoya Akhtar is concerned, brother-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and father-writer Javed Akhtar are beaming with pride and shared tweets on Twitter. Anurag Kashyup has made the list as well.
