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Top Film Awards Impose New Diversity Requirements

VOA News

   The organization that honors movies with the Academy Awards said
   Tuesday it will require films to meet new standardsin orderto promote
   diversity both on the screen and behind the scenes.

   TheAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencessaid the rules apply only
   to those films eligible for the best picture Oscar and will go into
   effect in 2024.

   Among therulesarerequirements forthepercentage or numbers of actors,
   production and marketing staff, and internships on a movie that must
   befilled bynon-whites, women, people with disabilities or people from
   the LGBTQ community.

   "The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on
   and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the
   movie-going audience," the Academy said in a statement.

   The Academy has faced criticism in recent years for a lack of diversity
   among its Oscars honorees, including in 2016 when all of the nominees
   in the four acting categories were white.

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