The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will make substantial changes to overhaul the Oscars awards ceremony, according to the New York Times.

In the wake of a furious debate over diversity, after all 20 acting nominations went to white people for the second year running, the Academy will examine whether the number of nominees for each category should be expanded. And it will consider rule changes to increase the current low number of voters from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.



The easiest change the Academy might make would be to restore the number of best picture nominees to 10 – the number has recently varied between five and 10 depending on whether potential nominees achieved a minimum of 5% of the overall vote by members in a given year. There have been 10 nominated films before - between 2010 and 2011, when the rule-change was introduced to avoid popular movies such as The Dark Knight missing out on nominations and rendering the Oscars less relevant. Previously, the number of nominees had been five.

According to the New York Times’s sources, the Academy is also considering a more radical (and less likely) move. The four acting categories that have been the subject of so much controversy could also be expanded from five to 10 nominees. Finally, organisers could move to prune older, less active members by removing voting rights for those who do not cast regular ballots.

The changes will be considered at a meeting of the Academy’s 51-strong governing board on 26 January, and come after its president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, vowed, on 18 January, to improve diversity in the nominations. The Academy has faced renewed criticism over the past week about its 6,300-strong membership, which the Los Angeles Times said was 94% white and 77% male in 2012, when it last conducted a survey. Black people made up only 2% of members, with representation among Latinos below 2%. By contrast, people from non-white backgrounds make up 36.3% of the US population, according to 2010 census figures.

Actor Jada Pinkett Smith, who made the first call for a boycott of the Oscars at the weekend, told a reporter for Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday that the current backlash was not really about the Academy.

“Here’s the deal. This whole Oscar controversy isn’t really about the Oscars,” said the star of The Matrix Revolutions and Magic Mike XXL, whose husband, Will Smith, missed out on a nomination for his role in the NFL drama Concussion. “It would be my plea to ask all people of colour to take back our power so we can use it in all sectors of our communities. And right now, specifically with African American people, we have some very serious issues, and I think that we have to move together. I’m hoping we can find ways to step together on this, rather than fighting each other.”

Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman told the BBC that America suffered from “subliminal racism” at the National Television awards in London on Wednesday. Addressing reporters, he also described Isaacs’s proposed changes as a “little late”. “It’s the first time I’m glad I’ve not been nominated,” he said. “I read in the paper this morning and I didn’t realise that there are 6,000 members and I think that 95% of them were white, so that kind of answers a lot of the questions.”

The record producer, composer and musician Quincy Jones, who has been nominated seven times for Oscars, revealed he had been asked to present an award next month, but would not be agreeing to do so unless given permission to speak at length on diversity.

“They called me to go present with Pharrell and Common,” said Jones, 82. “When I’m back [in Los Angeles], I’m going to ask [them] to let me speak for five minutes on the lack of diversity. If not, I’m not going to [present].”

Oscar-winner Spike Lee denied, on Wednesday, having called for an Oscars boycott, but others appeared determined to continue heaping pressure on the Academy. Fast & Furious star Tyrese Gibson joined a number of other well-known African American celebrities, including rapper 50 Cent, who have called for Chris Rock to step down as Oscars host in the wake of the diversity deficit furore.

“The statement that you make is that you step down,” Gibson told People on Wednesday. “There is no joke that he [Rock] can crack. There is no way for him to seize the moment and come into this thing and say, ‘I’m going to say this and say that I’m going to address the issue but then I’m still going to keep my gig as the host.’”

Gibson also pointed out that when black actors are rewarded by the Academy, it is often for non-threatening roles. “If all of the voting Academy members are 80 years old and can only recognise gifts and talents that are associated to you being an actor in a slave movie, or as a nanny, get them out of there, it’s time,” he said.

