Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which also selects the Oscar winners, welcomes new members. This year, a total of 487 new members have been invited, including four Swedes, reports Indiewire.
The invited Swedes are sound designer Linda Forsén and film photographers Maria von Hausswolff, Sophie Winqvist Loggins, and Sophia Olsson.
If all the new invitees accept membership, it means the Academy will have a total of 10,910 members, of whom 9,934 will be eligible to vote.
In recent years, the Academy has become more progressive in its selection of members, following the #OscarsSoWhite uproar in 2015, when the Academy was criticised for its homogeneity.
This year, several young women from diverse backgrounds have been invited, including actress Lily Gladstone from the film "Killers of the Flower Moon".
With the 2024 members included, the Academy now consists of 35 per cent women, 20 per cent from ethnic minorities, and 20 per cent from countries or territories outside the USA.