Director black american Ava DuVernay, was elected Wednesday to the executive committee of the Academy of the Oscars.
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10 June 2020 18h42
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Oscars: the director black Ava DuVernay elected to the executive committee
AFP
Agence France-Presse
LOS ANGELES — The director of black american Ava DuVernay, known for his pronouncements and works anti-racist, was elected Wednesday to the executive committee of the Academy of the Oscars which awards the most prestigious award of the Hollywood film.
With 26 women and 12 people of color out of 54 governors in total (compared to 25 and 11 above), the composition of the committee that runs the Academy has never been so diverse, fall under the specialized media.
Four new governors elected for the first time this year are women, while the actress black Whoopi Goldberg has been re-elected.
Director Ava DuVernay owes its notoriety to the series In their eyes recounting the true story of five teenagers of black and latino wrongly accused of raping a jogger in Central Park in the late 80’s, and the documentary The 13th on the mass incarceration of Blacks in the United States.
The committee of governors, renewed by a third each year, represents the different professional branches of the film industry and has for mission to define the strategic goals of the Academy.
The Academy of the Oscars, has been strongly criticized in recent years for its lack of diversity, not only among its members but also in the choice of their nominees and winners.
A campaign #OscarsSoWhite had been launched on social networks in January 2015 when the Oscars were awarded an overwhelming majority of candidates are white.
The film Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, and recounting the historic fight led by Martin Luther King for the right to vote to all american citizens, was part of the works in the running this year.
Selected in the category of “best film”, he had to settle for the Oscar for “best song” and many were considered at the time that Selma was unfairly ignored.
His actor star, David Oyelowo, said last week that members of the Academy had threatened to affect the promotion of the movie, when the team had sported t-shirts “I Can’t Breathe” during the premiere of the film in 2014.
They heard and protest against the death of Eric Garner, a black American was asphyxiated while he had been arrested by the police, such as George Floyd recently.
The Academy of the Oscars has responded on Twitter to David Oyelowo: “Ava & David, we hear you. Unacceptable. We are committed to improve.”
