Academy Invites 276 New Members

Opening its doors to a wide and intentionally diversified list of filmmakers, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 276 new members to join as the class of 2013.

The call went out to a broad cross-section of industry members from around the world: from Kevin Tsujihara, the newly named CEO of Warner Bros., to Jafar Panahi, the Iranian filmmaker who is currently under house arrest; from veteran directors like France’s Agnes Varda to newcomers like Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Benh Zeitlin; from composer-performer Prince to The Simpsons creator Matt Groening; and from actress-turned-writer/director Julie Delpy to writer/director-turned-star Lena Dunham.

The list of those invited to join the actors’ branch includes Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jennifer Lopez, Sandra Oh, Danny Trejo and Chris Tucker — as well as veteran performers like Charles Grodin, 78, and recent Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva, 86.

While the Academy could not say whether the list constituted a record number of new members, the roster was significantly larger than it has been in recent years. Last year, for example, 176 new members were invited to join the organization, which numbers about 6,000 members. Of the 276 members invited, 87 are women, or 31.5 percent. Of the 112 members with accessible birth date information, the median age of the new Academy members is 51, according to a THR analysis. That’s an improvement over the numbers recorded in a Los Angeles Times study of the Academy, conducted in 1962, that found that only 23 percent of the membership were women and that the median age was 62. 

Academy president Hawk Koch explained that this year’s bumper crop came about because the Academy dropped a quota system which restricted the number of new members that each of its 16 branches could invite each year to replace members who had retired or passed away. “By lifting the quota system,” he said. “We were able to bring in a lot of people who could have been brought in earlier if there had been openings.” As a result of quota system, he added, a number of branches had a backlog of individuals they had not been able to invite in previous years but who they welcomed in this year.

Hawk and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson have made no secret of the fact that they also hoped to diversify the ranks of the Academy, which has been accused of being old, white and male. But Koch insisted that in looking at potential candidates, “We did not change our criteria at all. Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn’t in the Academy but who deserved to be.”

In the 15 invitations issued by the directors branch — often regarded as one of the Academy’s most old-boy holdouts — the evolving complexion of the Academy could be seen. Two women made the cut: Ava DuVernay, whose Middle of Nowhere captured a spirit award earlier this year, and Catherine Hardwicke, who set the Twilight franchise in motion. There were several black filmmakers: Duvernay, Steve McQueen (Shame) and Tim Story (Fantastic Four). Foreign filmmakers asked to join included A Royal Affair’s Nikolaj Arcel, No‘s Pablo Larrain, War Witch‘s Kim Nguyen, Iran’s Panahi and Kon-Tiki‘s Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg. But there was also room for some box-office stars like The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips and Paul Feig, whose The Heat opens in theaters today.

The two branches that extended the most invitations were documentary, which sent out 42 invites, and visual effects, which issued 24. “They were the two branches that had not been able to represent the best of the best because of the quota system,” Koch said. “Documentary and vis effects have exploded in recent years. It’s not that we wanted to see the branches grow, but we wanted to be as inclusive as possible.

The documentary invitees include such influential filmmakers as Robert Frank (Pull My Daisy), Claude Lanzmann (Shoah) and Marcel Ophuls (The Sorrow and the Pity) as well as relatively new talents in the field like Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles) and Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, co-directors of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.

Each year Academy members may sponsor one candidate for membership within their branch. Qualification requirements vary by branch. Writers, directors and producers are asked to have at least two film credits on “films that reflect the Academy’s highest standards.” Actors need to have appeared in at least three such films. Other branches require prospective members to have worked within their fields for a certain number of years.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception in September.

PHOTOS: Backstage at the Oscars: What You Didn’t See on TV

Below is the complete list of invited artists and executives.

Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,” “Chaplin”
Lucy Liu – “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “Chicago”
Jennifer Lopez – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Selena”
Alma Martinez – “Born in East L.A.,” “Under Fire”
Emily Mortimer – “Hugo,” “Lars and the Real Girl”
Sandra Oh – “Rabbit Hole,” “Sideways”
Paula Patton – “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Michael Peña – “End of Watch,” “Crash”
Emmanuelle Riva – “Amour,” “Hiroshima, Mon Amour”
Jason Schwartzman – “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Rushmore”
Geno Silva – “Mulholland Drive,” “Amistad”
Danny Trejo – “Machete,” “Heat”
Chris Tucker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Rush Hour”

Cinematographers
Luca Bigazzi – “This Must Be the Place,” “Certified Copy”
Benoît Delhomme – “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “The Proposition”
Simon Duggan – “The Great Gatsby,” “Killer Elite”
Greig Fraser – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”
Jonathan Freeman – “Remember Me,” “Fifty Dead Men Walking”
Greg Gardiner – “Race to Witch Mountain,” “Elf”
Eric Gautier – “Into the Wild,” “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Agnès Godard – “Sister,” “Beau Travail”
Eduard Grau – “Buried,” “A Single Man”
Jess Hall – “The Spectacular Now,” “Brideshead Revisited”
Fred Kelemen – “The Turin Horse,” “The Man from London”
Mark Lee Ping Bing – “Norwegian Wood,” “In the Mood for Love”
Reed Morano – “Little Birds,” “Frozen River”
Oleg Mutu – “Beyond the Hills,” “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”
Alex Nepomniaschy – “Narc,” “Safe”
Christian Sebaldt – “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” “Race to Space”
Ben Seresin – “World War Z,” “Unstoppable”
Adam Stone – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Checco Varese – “Girl in Progress,” “The Aura”
Ken Zunder – “Bending the Rules,” “That’s What I Am”
Costume Designers
Paco Delgado – “Les Misérables,” “Biutiful”
Sophie de Rakoff – “This Means War,” “Legally Blonde”
Carlo Poggioli – “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Cold Mountain”

Designers
Lori Balton – “Argo,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Judy Becker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Fighter”
Simon Bright – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Martin T. Charles – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Artist”
David M. Crank – “The Master,” “Lincoln”
Stefan Paul Dechant – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “True Grit”
Tracey A. Doyle – “The Muppets,” “21”
Anna Lynch-Robinson – “Les Misérables,” “An Education”
Maria Nay – “Identity Thief,” “Ray”
David Smith – “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” “The Holiday”

Directors
Nikolaj Arcel – “A Royal Affair,” “Truth about Men”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow”
Paul Feig – “The Heat,” “Bridesmaids”
Catherine Hardwicke – “Twilight,” “Thirteen”
Kirk Jones – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Waking Ned Devine”
Ken Kwapis – “Big Miracle,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”
Pablo Larraín – “No,” “Tony Manero”
Steve McQueen – “Shame,” “Hunger”
Kim Nguyen – “War Witch (Rebelle),” “City of Shadows”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle”
Todd Phillips – “The Hangover,” “Old School”
Joachim Rønning – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Espen Sandberg – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Tim Story – “Think Like a Man,” “Fantastic Four”
Benh Zeitlin – “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Glory at Sea”

Documentary
Orlando Bagwell – “Citizen King,” “Malcolm X: Make It Plain”
Rebecca Cammisa – “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” “Which Way Home”
Yung Chang – “China Heavyweight,” “Up the Yangtze”
Michael Chin – “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple,” “In the Shadow of the
Stars”
Christine Choy – “In the Name of the Emperor,” “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”
Bonni Cohen – “The Island President,” “Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic”
Eduardo Coutinho – “As Canções,” “Cabra Marcado Para Morrer (Twenty Years Later)”
Miriam Cutler – “Kings Point,” “Ethel”
Andrea Nix Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Sean Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Robert Frank – “Cocksucker Blues,” “Pull My Daisy”
William Greaves – “Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey,” “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take
One”
Lauren Greenfield – “The Queen of Versailles,” “Thin”
Patricio Guzmán – “Nostalgia for the Light,” “The Battle of Chile”
Vivien Hillgrove – “Symphony of the Soil,” “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee”
Heddy Honigmann – “El Olvido (Oblivion),” “Crazy”
Vikram Jayanti – “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” “Game Over: Kasparov and
the Machine”
Peter Kinoy – “Poverty Outlaw,” “When the Mountains Tremble”
Claude Lanzmann – “Le Rapport Karski (The Karski Report),” “Shoah”
Kim Longinotto – “Rough Aunties,” “Sisters in Law”
Stanley Nelson – “Freedom Riders,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”
Jehane Noujaim – “Control Room,” “Startup.com”
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – “Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret,” “Saving Face”
Marcel Ophuls – “Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” “The Sorrow and the Pity”
José Padilha – “Secrets of the Tribe,” “Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle”
Elise Pearlstein – “Last Call at the Oasis,” “Food, Inc.”
Raoul Peck – “Fatal Assistance (Assistance Mortelle),” “Lumumba: La Mort du Prophète”
Kevin Rafferty – “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” “The Atomic Cafe”
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire”
Bob Richman – “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” “Waiting for ‘Superman’”
T. Woody Richman – “How to Survive a Plague,” “Fahrenheit 9/11”
Veronica Selver – “Berkeley in the Sixties,” “You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the
South”
Jon Shenk – “The Island President,” “Lost Boys of Sudan”
Ricki Stern – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Robert Stone – “Earth Days,” “Radio Bikini”
Annie Sundberg – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Renee Tajima-Pena – “Who Killed Vincent Chin?,” “My America (Or Honk If You Love
Buddha)”
Agnès Varda – “The Beaches of Agnès,” “The Gleaners and I”
Roger Ross Williams – “God Loves Uganda,” “Music by Prudence”
Pamela Yates – “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator,” “The Reckoning: The Battle for the
International Criminal Court”
Amy Ziering – “The Invisible War,” “Derrida”

Executives
Holly Bario
Jeb Brody
Eric d’Arbeloff
Dean C. Hallett
Lynn Harris
Jeff Ivers
Jonathan King
Robert Kirby
Dylan Leiner
Nick Meyer
Andrew Millstein
Hannah Minghella
Angela Morrison
Brian Roberts
Mark Roybal
Tucker Tooley
Kevin Tsujihara

Film Editors
Michael Berenbaum – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Sex and the City”
Jeff Freeman – “Ted,” “Cruel Intentions”
James Haygood – “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Fight Club”
Stuart Levy – “Savages,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”
Mary Jo Markey – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Super 8”

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Luisa Abel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception”
Anne Aulenta-Spira – “The Place beyond the Pines,” “Drive”
Terry Baliel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “J. Edgar”
Thomas Floutz – “The Call,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
Kay Georgiou – “Promised Land,” “Lincoln”
Bernadette Mazur – “Men in Black 3,” “The Campaign”
Kim Santantonio – “Gangster Squad,” “Frost/Nixon”
Lisa Tomblin – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows: Part 1”
Kelvin R. Trahan – “Argo,” “Memoirs of a Geisha”
Lisa Westcott – “Les Misérables,” ”Shakespeare in Love”

Members-at-Large
Victoria Alonso
Fred Baron
Ben Bray
Pieter Jan Brugge
Jackie Burch
Leo Davis
Susie Figgis
Lori Furie
Glenn S. Gainor
Joe Gareri
Lance Gilbert
Andy Gill
Mindy Marin
Laray Mayfield
Jeanne McCarthy
Neil Meron
Gary Powell
Ned Price
Michelle Satter
Stefan Sonnenfeld
Cindy Tolan
Brent Woolsey

Music
Ramiro Belgardt – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Lincoln”
Ramin Djawadi – “Safe House,” “Iron Man”
Jennifer Dunnington – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Hugo”
Siedah Garrett – “Rio,” “Dreamgirls”
Joe Hisaishi – “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away”
Henry Jackman – “This Is the End,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
Cliff Martinez – “Drive,” “Traffic”
Prince – “Purple Rain,” “Happy Feet”
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire”
Aaron Lael Zigman – “Peeples,” “Sex and the City”

Producers
Stefan Arndt – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Jason Blum – “The Purge,” “Paranormal Activity”
Finola Dwyer – “Quartet,” “An Education”
Jack Giarraputo – “Anger Management,” “The Wedding Singer”
Veit Heiduschka – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Lloyd Levin – “Green Zone,” “Watchmen”
Julie Lynn – “Albert Nobbs,” “Nine Lives”
Margaret Menegoz – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Andrea Sperling – “Smashed,” “Like Crazy”

Public Relations
Rachel Cadden
Theresa Cross
Jeff S. Elefterion
Julie Fontaine
Jackson George
Anne Globe
Michael Lawson
Dennis O’Connor
Blair Rich
John G. Sabel

Short Films and Feature Animation
Marc Bertrand – “Gloria Victoria,” “Hollow Land”
Bryan Buckley – “Asad,” “The Wake-Up Caller”
Shawn Christensen – “Curfew,” “Brink”
Eric Darnell – “Madagascar,” “Shrek”
John C. Donkin – “Ice Age Continental Drift,” “Gone Nutty”
Ken Duncan – “9,” “Shark Tale”
Danielle Feinberg – “Brave,” “WALL-E”
Sam Fell – “ParaNorman,” “The Tale of Despereaux”
Matt Groening – “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare,’” “The Simpsons Movie”
Vicky Jenson – “Shark Tale,” “Shrek”
Travis Knight – “ParaNorman,” “Coraline”
Steve May – “Brave,” “Up”
Rich Moore – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
Robert Neuman – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Tangled”
Brandon Oldenburg – “Rise of the Guardians,” “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
PES – “Fresh Guacamole,” “Western Spaghetti”
Steve Pilcher – “Brave,” “Shrek the Third”
Normand Roger – “Hollow Land,” “The Banquet of the Concubine”
Clark Spencer – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Bolt”

Sound
Bobbi Banks – “The Call,” “Hustle & Flow”
Jose Antonio Garcia – “Argo,” “Babel”
Simon Hayes – “Les Misérables,” “X-Men: First Class”
Edward J. Hernandez – “Real Steel,” “Basic Instinct”
Daniel S. Irwin – “Prometheus,” “Little Children”
Drew Kunin – “Life of Pi,” “Lost in Translation”
Michael W. Mitchell – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Tom Ozanich – “Project X,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 2”
Mark Paterson – “Les Misérables,” “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
Richard Pryke – “127 Hours,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Erin Michael Rettig – “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Ann Scibelli – “Prometheus,” “Inglourious Basterds”
Brian T. Slack – “Chéri,” “Crossover”
Bruce Tanis – “Gangster Squad,” “X-Men: First Class”
F. Elmo Weber – “Identity Thief,” “The Kids Are All Right”
Christopher T. Welch – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “(500) Days of Summer”
Dave Whitehead – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “District 9”
Stuart Wilson – “Skyfall,” “War Horse”

Visual Effects
Jason Bayever – “Life of Pi,” “The Wolfman”
Mark Breakspear – “The Great Gatsby,” “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Brennan – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Minority Report”
Tony Clark – “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire”
David Clayton – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Michael Dawson – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Devil’s Double”
Erik-Jan De Boer – “Life of Pi,” “Night at the Museum”
Donald R. Elliott – “Life of Pi,” “Seabiscuit”
John Goodson – “Red Tails,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Charley Henley – “Prometheus,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
John McLeod – “Django Unchained,” “The Aviator”
Mark Noel – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “Transformers”
David Prescott – “Transformers,” “X-Men”
Guillaume Rocheron – “Life of Pi,” “Sucker Punch”
Wendy Rogers – “Puss in Boots,” “Shrek”
David Alexander Smith – “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Wayne Stables – “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Avatar”
Richard Stammers – “Prometheus,” “Angels & Demons”
Richard Stutsman – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Independence Day”
Christopher Townsend – “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “The Day after Tomorrow”
Stephan Trojansky – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Hereafter”
David Watkins – “Ali,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”
Jeff White – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
Trevor Wood – “Prometheus,” “The Golden Compass”

Writers
Jessica Bendinger – “Aquamarine,” “Bring It On”
Reggie Rock Bythewood – “Notorious,” “Get on the Bus”
Tina Gordon Chism – “Peeples,” “Drumline”
Julie Delpy – “Before Midnight,” “2 Days in Paris”
Lena Dunham – “Nobody Walks,” “Tiny Furniture”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow”
John Gatins – “Flight,” “Coach Carter”
John Hamburg – “I Love You, Man,” “Meet the Parents”
John Lee Hancock – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Blind Side”
Rian Johnson – “Looper,” “Brick”
Jeff Nichols – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Sarah Polley – “Take This Waltz,” “Away from Her”
Chris Terrio – “Argo,” “Heights”

Associates
Lorrie Bartlett
Paul Bronfman
Markham L. Goldstein
Robert Harvey
Gregory S. Laemmle
Sandra Marsh
Adam Schweitzer
Kimberly Snyder
Matthew L. Snyder
Les Zellan