Check your postbox: this year the Academy has asked an unprecedented number of film industry luminaries to join their ranks as part of a drive to double diversity by the end of the decade. Heres what were taking away from the RSVPs
Being white and male doesnt guarantee you a place at the table
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Ken Loach, now 80, won the Palme dOr for the second time this year and has for the past 50 or so been an absolute bastion of quality film-making. Hes cited by many of the worlds top directors as an inspiration, and he makes the kind of liberal fare even the grandest Hollywood cigar-chomper would grudgingly concede has credit. Past winners are automatically invited, but, still, the invite for Mark Rylance also serves to show just how long it was before the movies really worked out how to use him.
The Academy is aping Cannes
Though Hollywood notoriously disdains foreign cinema, part of the rationale in the directorial invitees seems to be to bring on board some of the big hitters from the Croisette: Palme dOr winners such as Cristian Mungiu, Abdellatif Kechiche, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Abbas Kiarostami. Not only does it class up the joint, it helps with diversity too. Win win.