AFP :
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences elected film producer Janet Yang as its new president, the group behind the Oscars announced Tuesday. Yang, best known for hits including The Joy Luck Club and The People vs Larry Flynt, becomes the fourth woman elected to run Hollywood’s most elite group of filmmakers, and the first of Asian origin. Academy members vote for the winners of the Oscars each year, while the group has recently launched a major new Los Angeles film museum which had been decades in the
planning. In a statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer praised in particular Yang’s work on “membership recruitment, governance, equity, diversity, and inclusion” among other areas.
The Academy has had to navigate multiple controversies in recent years, including accusations of a lack of racial diversity.
It has since fulfilled
a pledge to double the number of women and minority members by 2020, significantly expanding overall membership from around 6,000 to nearly 10,000
in the process.
