Academy Invites Diverse Group to Be Members

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, responding to criticism that its membership lacks diversity, announced June 29 that it is extending invitations to join the organization to 683 artists and executives — 41 percent of them people of color and 46 percent women — who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to cinema.

Tatsuya Nakadai

Invitees include Hollywood veteran James Hong, whose acting credits go back more than 60 years; legendary Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai; up-and-coming Japanese American directors Cary Joji Fukunaga and Karyn Kusama; noted Japanese directors Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Takeshi Kitano; playwright/screenwriter David Henry Hwang; animators Yoshiaki Nishimura and Hiromasa Yonebayashi; and documentary filmmakers Emiko Omori and Spencer Nakasako.

Cary Joji Fukunaga

This year’s Oscars ceremony was controversial because all of the acting nominees were white. Additionally, while the lack of black representation was addressed during the program, Asian Pacific American groups slammed the Academy for allowing jokes about Asians to be broadcast.

Those invited in more than one branch (indicated by an asterisk) must choose one branch upon accepting membership.

Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2016. New members will be welcomed at an invitation-only reception in the fall.

Asian/Asian American invitees include:

Actors

James Hong

James Hong (“Safe,” “Mulan”)

Daniel Dae Kim (“The Divergent Series: Insurgent,” “Crash”)

Tatsuya Nakadai (“Ran,” “Kagemusha”)

Freida Pinto (“Immortals,” “Slumdog Millionaire”)

Daniel Dae Kim

Elizabeth Sung (“Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Joy Luck Club”)

Sharmila Tagore (“Dhadkan,” “The World of Apu”)

Cinematographers

Peter Pau (“The Forbidden Kingdom,” “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”)

Poon Hang-Sang (“Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster,” “Kung Fu Hustle”)

Nelson Yu Lik-Wai (“A Simple Life,” “24 City”)

Zhao Fei (“The Sun Also Rises,” “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion”)

Designers

Yohei Taneda

Yoshihito Akatsuka (“The Left Ear,” “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale”)

Sue Chan (“Gone Girl,” “300: Rise of an Empire”)

Yohei Taneda (“Monster Hunt,” “The Hateful Eight”)

Directors

Cary Joji Fukunaga (“Beasts of No Nation,” “Jane Eyre”)

Naomi Kawase

Hou Hsiao-Hsien (“The Assassin,” “Three Times”)

Naomi Kawase* (“Still the Water,” “The Mourning Forest”)

So Yong Kim (“For Ellen,” “In Between Days”)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Seventh Code,” “Pulse”)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Karyn Kusama (“Jennifer’s Body,” “Girlfight”)

Deepa Mehta (“Midnight’s Children,” “Water”)

Park Chan-wook* (“Stoker,” “Oldboy”)

James Wan (“The Conjuring,” “Saw”)

Documentary

Karyn Kusama

Kazuo Hara (“A Dedicated Life,” “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”)

Asif Kapadia (“Amy,” “Senna”)

Anita Lee (“Stories We Tell,” “Everybody’s Children”)

Spencer Nakasako (“Refugee,” “A.K.A. Don Bonus”)

Kazuo Hara

Emiko Omori (“Rabbit in the Moon,” “Regret to Inform”)

Trinh T. Minh-ha (“Forgetting Vietnam,” “Surname Viet, Given Name Nam”)

Jean Tsien (“Shut Up and Sing,” “Scottsboro: An American Tragedy”)

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (“Meru,” “Yossou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love”)

Spencer Nakasako

Wang Bing (“Three Sisters,” “West of the Tracks”)

Executives

Bonni Lee (Village Roadshow Pictures)

Film Editors

Troy Takaki (“Baggage Claim,” “The Bounty Hunter”)

Emiko Omori

Julia Wong (“Hercules,” “Extract”)

Mark Yoshikawa (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Parts 1 and 2,” “The Tree of Life”)

Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists

Karen Asano-Myers (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “42”)

Troy Takaki

Music

Shigeru Umebayashi (“The Grandmaster,” “2046”)

Producers

Albert Lee (“Chinese Zodiac,” “Let the Bullets Fly”)

Roy Lee (“The Lego Movie,” “Abduction”)

Mark Yoshikawa

Mynette Louie (“Land Ho!,” “Cold Comes the Night”)

Anish Savjani (“Green Room,” “Meek’s Cutoff”)

Nina Yang Bongiovi (“Dope,” “Fruitvale Station”)

Public Relations

Shigeru Umebayashi

Fumiko Kitahara Otto

Jack Pan

Short Films and Feature Animation

Sanjay Bakshi (“The Good Dinosaur,” “Monsters University”)

Robert Kondo

Galen Tan Chu (“Epic,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”)

Michael Fong (“Inside Out,” “Toy Story 3”)

Tang K. Heng (“Kung Fu Panda,” “Kung Fu Panda 2”)

Raman Hui (“Monster Hunt,” “Shrek the Third”)

Dale Mayeda

Yong Duk Jhun (“The Croods,” “Shrek Forever After”)

Robert Kondo (“The Dam Keeper,” “La Luna”)

Dale Mayeda (“Planes: Fire & Rescue,” “Frozen”)

Yoshiaki Nishimura (“When Marnie Was There,” “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”)

Yoshiaki Nishimura

Sanjay Patel (“Sanjay’s Super Team,” “Tokyo Mater”)

Kent Seki “(Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Megamind”)

Dice Tsutsumi (“The Dam Keeper,” “Monsters University”)

Koji Yamamura (“Muybridge’s Strings,” “Mr. Head”)

Kent Seki

Hiromasa Yonebayashi (“When Marnie Was There,” “The Secret World of Arrietty”)

Sound

Paul Hsu (“Spotlight,” “Salt”)

Writers

Dice Tsutsumi

David Henry Hwang (“Possession,” “Golden Gate”)

Naomi Kawase* (“Still the Water,” “Firefly”)

Takeshi Kitano (“Outrage,” “Kikujiro”)

Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Like Father, Like Son,” “Nobody Knows”)

Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Lee Chang-dong (“Poetry,” “Oasis”)

Park Chan-wook* (“Thirst,” “Oldboy”)

Members-at-Large

Annie Chang

Takeshi Kitano

Jeff Imada

Stephanie A. Ito

Ravi D. Mehta

Sunny Park

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Associates

Esther Chang

Phillip Sun

For a complete list, visit www.oscars.org/2016class.