It started with a hashtag and ended up with the Academy shaking up its entire membership. Now BAFTA’s Los Angeles members have voted in favour of BAFTA reviewing its own membership. According to BAFTA-LA chairman Kieran Breen, if members are now inactive for a period of five years the organisation will “reclassify their membership so that they can remain members and enjoy all the usual benefits at a discounted membership fee, but without award voting rights or screeners.” And while this is actually a step further than the Academy, whose new procedure means members will only lose voting rights if they’ve been inactive for a period of 10 years, an email sent to BAFTA’s 7,500 members worldwide reports that the efforts were voted in by an overwhelming 83% of LA members, avoiding the controversy of the Academy’s recent, similar announcement.
“We will be collating the information from our member survey to give us a picture of the makeup of our membership and help ensure we are representing a diversity of views in all we do,” BAFTA-New York chairman Luke Parker Bowles says in a statement, as reported by THR. “Once we have analysed the findings, we will publish a new diversity policy later this year,” he promises. Here’s hoping there’s no need to hit that # key at 2017’s ceremony.
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Text Matthew Whitehouse