Taylor Swift and The Weeknd joining the Oscar voting body

The musicians, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd are among the superstars that have been invited to join the organization that votes on who gets Oscars.

The body recently revealed that other invitees include Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who directed “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and won seven Oscars this year including the prize for best picture.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences mentioned that these new members of Tinseltown’s most elite club numbers 398 people. That adds to about half the figure of recent years as the academy scaled back after working to double the number of women and non-white members, which followed calls to boycott the glitzy Oscars and an angry social media backlash under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite due to a lack of diversity. It now consists of has more than 10,000 members.

The academy said 40 percent identify as women in the 2023 class, 34 percent belong to underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, and 52 percent are from 50 countries as well as territories outside the United States.

The movie “Where the Crawdads Sing” features Taylor’s song “Carolina”, while The Weeknd’s tune “Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” is heard in “Avatar: Way of Water.” The artist’s real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye.

Known as the apex body of the Hollywood film industry, the Academy gives out a single round of invitations on a yearly basis. Only its members can vote for Oscar winners. Next year’s Oscars are set to take place on March 10.

Main Image: Sqoop

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