Vidya Balan, Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor invited to join the Academy

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has revealed its list of new members, which comprises 395 artistes from 50 countries, including four from India. Vidya Balan has been invited to join the actors' branch, while Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Shrihari Sathe have been invited to join the producer branch.

The Academy revealed that 46% of the new members are women, 39% come from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and the majority of the new class were international members, making up 53% of the group.

The Academy also added 25 Oscar winners and 89 nominees from the 93rd Oscars. Last year, 12 Indian artistes, including Alia Bhatt, Hrithik Roshan, casting director Tess Joseph and costume designer Neeta Lulla, were among the 819 artistes and executives from the movie industry who were invited to join.

The board of governors also approved a new set of regulations for the 94th Oscars, including extending the digital eligibility of streaming and VOD films for the upcoming year. Additionally, there are significant changes in the music and sound categories.

For the Original Score category, the music must consist of a minimum of 35% of the film, down from the previous 60%, while for the Original Song, no more than five songs can be submitted by a film.

A preliminary round of voting to shortlist ten films will now be introduced in the sound category, following which the sound branch will vote and select the nominees.

Previous recent changes in the rules include returning to ten nominees for Best Picture, and the shortlist of films for the international feature, animated short film, documentary, and live-action short film categories has been expanded from ten to 15.

The 94th Oscars will be held on 27 March 2022.