New film academy members include Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Conan O'Brien
By JAKE COYLE
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 534 new members to its organization on Thursday, adding recent Oscar nominees and many more to Hollywood's most exclusive club.
The newest class of Oscar voters includes a number of stars like Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza, Danielle Deadwyler and Andrew Scott. They, along with filmmakers, below-the-line professionals and executives will bring the film academy's membership total to 11,120, with voting members numbering 10,143.
That's the largest membership ever for the academy. Since the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the film academy has added thousands of members to swell its ranks and diversify its voting body. This year's class is 41% female, 45% from underrepresented communities and 55% from outside the U.S.
Those new members will make the entire academy 35% women, 22% from underrepresented communities and 21% international.
'We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy,' said academy chief executive Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang in a statement. 'Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community.'
Invitations went out to 91 Oscar nominees and 26 winners, including best actress winner Mikey Madison ("Anora") and best supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain"). Recent nominees who were invited include Ariana Grande, Jeremy Strong, Sebastian Stan and Monica Barbara. Gints Zilbalodis, the director of best animated film winner 'Flow" will join the animation branch.
Other filmmakers set to join the academy include Mike Flanagan ('Doctor Sleep'), Azazel Jacobs ('His Three Daughters'), Brady Corbet ('The Brutalist'), Coraline Fargeat ('The Substance') Jane Schoenbrun ('I Saw the TV Glow'), Halina Reijn ('Babygirl') and Gia Coppola ('The Last Showgirl').
Payal Kapadia ('All We Imagine As Light'), Lena Waithe ('Queen & Slim') and Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley of 'Sing Sing' were all invited in the writers branch. In the music branch, new members include Brandi Carlile ('Elton John: Never Too Late'), Branford Marsalis ('Rustin') and Youssou N'Dour ('Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love').
The last two emcees to host the Oscars — Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien — were also invited as members. After a well-reviewed broadcast that drew 19.7 million viewers, O'Brien is returning to host the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15.
A few new rules will await the 2025 academy members.
For the first time, members will be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final road of Oscar voting. This year, a new award category for casting will be voted on for the upcoming Oscars. The academy has also established a new Oscar for stunt design, but that won't be given out until 2028.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Japan Today
13 hours ago
- Japan Today
New film academy members include Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Conan O'Brien
By JAKE COYLE The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 534 new members to its organization on Thursday, adding recent Oscar nominees and many more to Hollywood's most exclusive club. The newest class of Oscar voters includes a number of stars like Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza, Danielle Deadwyler and Andrew Scott. They, along with filmmakers, below-the-line professionals and executives will bring the film academy's membership total to 11,120, with voting members numbering 10,143. That's the largest membership ever for the academy. Since the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the film academy has added thousands of members to swell its ranks and diversify its voting body. This year's class is 41% female, 45% from underrepresented communities and 55% from outside the U.S. Those new members will make the entire academy 35% women, 22% from underrepresented communities and 21% international. 'We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy,' said academy chief executive Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang in a statement. 'Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community.' Invitations went out to 91 Oscar nominees and 26 winners, including best actress winner Mikey Madison ("Anora") and best supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain"). Recent nominees who were invited include Ariana Grande, Jeremy Strong, Sebastian Stan and Monica Barbara. Gints Zilbalodis, the director of best animated film winner 'Flow" will join the animation branch. Other filmmakers set to join the academy include Mike Flanagan ('Doctor Sleep'), Azazel Jacobs ('His Three Daughters'), Brady Corbet ('The Brutalist'), Coraline Fargeat ('The Substance') Jane Schoenbrun ('I Saw the TV Glow'), Halina Reijn ('Babygirl') and Gia Coppola ('The Last Showgirl'). Payal Kapadia ('All We Imagine As Light'), Lena Waithe ('Queen & Slim') and Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley of 'Sing Sing' were all invited in the writers branch. In the music branch, new members include Brandi Carlile ('Elton John: Never Too Late'), Branford Marsalis ('Rustin') and Youssou N'Dour ('Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love'). The last two emcees to host the Oscars — Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien — were also invited as members. After a well-reviewed broadcast that drew 19.7 million viewers, O'Brien is returning to host the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15. A few new rules will await the 2025 academy members. For the first time, members will be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final road of Oscar voting. This year, a new award category for casting will be voted on for the upcoming Oscars. The academy has also established a new Oscar for stunt design, but that won't be given out until 2028. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Music history is littered with projects planned, anticipated, even completed -- and then scrapped
NEW YORK (AP) -- The idea that Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and ultimately shelved entire albums of music may seem odd to the casual listener. Why put yourself through all that work for nothing? Yet "lost albums" are embedded in music industry lore. Some were literally lost. Some remained unfinished or unreleased because of tragedy, shortsighted executives or creators who were perfectionist -- or had short attention spans. Often, the music is eventually made public, like Springsteen is doing now, although out of context from the times in which it was originally made. So in honor of Springsteen's 83-song "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" box set being released Friday, The Associated Press has collected 10 examples of albums that were meant to be but weren't. "Smile," The Beach Boys Back in the news with the death of Brian Wilson, this album "invented the category of the lost masterpiece in popular music," says Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone. Some of the material that surfaced suggested Wilson, the Beach Boys' chief writer, was well on his way: the majestic single "Good Vibrations," the centerpiece "Heroes and Villains" and the reflective "Surf's Up." Wilson succumbed to internal competitive pressure worsened by mental illness and drug abuse while making it in 1966 and 1967, eventually aborting the project. He later finished it as a solo album backed by the Wondermints in 2004. The better-known songs were joined with some psychedelic-era curios that displayed Wilson's melodic sense and matchless ability as a vocal arranger, along with lyrics that some fellow Beach Boys worried were too "out there." "The Black Album," Prince The mercurial Prince pulled back this disc, set for release in December 1987, at the last minute. Some promo copies had already slipped out, and it was so widely bootlegged that when Warner Bros. officially put it out in limited release in 1994, the company billed it as "The Legendary Black Album." Encased in an all-black sleeve, the project was said to be Prince's nod to Black fans who may have felt they had lost him to a pop audience. It's almost nonstop funk, including a lascivious Cindy Crawford tribute and the workout "Superfunkycalifragisexy." The maestro's instincts were well-placed, though. Coming after "Sign O' the Times" -- arguably his peak -- this would have felt like a minor project. "Cigarettes and Valentines," Green Day Written and recorded in 2003, Green Day's "Cigarettes and Valentines" was actually lost; someone apparently stole the master tapes. Feeling on a creative roll, the rock trio decided against recreating what they'd done and pressed on with new material. Smart move. The result was "American Idiot," the band's best work. Perhaps the robbery was "just a sign that we made a crappy record and we should make a better one," songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong told MTV. The title cut later surfaced on a 2010 live album. The rest was lost to time. "Detox," Dr. Dre To say anticipation was high for Dr. Dre's third album when he started recording in 2002 puts it mildly. The theme disc about a hitman, which Dre described as a "hip-hop musical," had an all-star squad of contributors including Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar. "I'd describe it as the most advanced rap album musically and lyrically we'll probably ever have a chance to listen to," co-producer Scott Storch told MTV. But we never have. When he announced a different third album in 2015, Dre explained on his radio show what happened to "Detox": "I didn't like it. It wasn't good. ... I worked my ass off on it, and I don't think I did a good enough job." "Black Gold," Jimi Hendrix A series of unfinished demos, "Black Gold" was a taste of where guitar god Jimi Hendrix might have gone creatively if he hadn't died at 27 in 1970. He was composing a song suite about an animated Black superhero, says Tom Maxwell, whose podcast "Shelved" unearths stories behind lost music. Hendrix sent a tape of his work to longtime drummer Mitch Mitchell for advice on fleshing it out. That music was set aside at Mitchell's home and forgotten for two decades after Hendrix died. To date, Hendrix's estate has made only one of these recordings public, a song called "Suddenly November Morning." Hendrix, after clearing his throat, slips in and out of falsetto while accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar. "A Story," Yoko Ono Written while Yoko Ono was separated from John Lennon during his infamous "lost weekend" in 1973-74, "A Story" had the potential of changing the musical narrative around her. It was a strong album -- without the avant-garde stylings that made Ono a challenge for mainstream listeners -- recorded with musicians who worked on Lennon's "Walls & Bridges." Maxwell calls it "an emancipation manifesto" that was set aside when Ono reconciled with Lennon. She's never publicly explained why, Maxwell says, although one song seems clearly about an affair she had while Lennon was away. Some of the material from "A Story" was included as part of the "Onobox" project that came out in 1992, and the album was released separately in 1997. Ono also re-recorded some of its songs in 1980, and Lennon was holding a tape of her composition "It Happened" when he was shot and killed. In it, she sings about an unspecified, seemingly traumatic event: "It happened at a time of my life when I least expected." That wasn't even the most chilling premonition. Her song "O'Oh" ended with firecrackers that sound like gunshots. It was left off the 1997 release. "Chinese Democracy," Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses was at the top of the hard rock world when they began recording a new album in 1994. It didn't go well. Inconclusive sessions slogged on for years, and all but singer Axl Rose left the group. Recording costs exceeded a staggering $13 million, by some accounts the most expensive rock album ever. One witness told The New York Times in 2005: "What Axl wanted to do was to make the best record that had ever been made. It's an impossible task. You could go on indefinitely, which is what they've done." When "Chinese Democracy" was finally released in 2008, the world yawned. "Love Man," Marvin Gaye Not even a decade after the triumph of "What's Going On," Marvin Gaye was floundering. His "Here, My Dear" divorce album flopped, he struggled with drugs and searched for relevance in the disco era. The single "Ego Tripping Out," meant to herald a new album, laid bare the problems: Over a melody cribbed from Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff," the famously cool "Love Man" boasted like an insecure rapper. He scrapped the album, repurposing some its material for the 1981 disc "In Our Lifetime," a process so fraught he bitterly left his longtime label Motown. Gaye went to CBS, made a huge comeback with "Sexual Healing," then was shot dead by his father in 1984. "Homegrown," Neil Young Neil Young rivals Prince in the volume of material left in his vault, and he's been systematically releasing much of it. The mostly acoustic "Homegrown" was recorded as 1974 bled into 1975, during Young's breakup with actor Carrie Snodgress. Instead of releasing it in 1975, he put out another heartbreak album, the well-regarded "Tonight's the Night," about losing friends to drug abuse. When Young finally dropped "Homegrown" in 2020, he wrote in his blog, "Sometimes life hurts. This is the one that got away." "Streets of Philadelphia Sessions," Bruce Springsteen Of the discs included in Springsteen's "Tracks II" set, this was reportedly the closest to being released, in the spring of 1995. After the success of the Oscar-winning song "Streets of Philadelphia," Springsteen recorded an album in the same vein, with a synthesizer and West Coast rap-inspired drum loops setting the musical motif. Strikingly contemporary for its time, Springsteen ultimately felt it was too similar to previous releases dominated by dark stories about relationships. "I always put them away," he said of his lost albums. "But I don't throw them away."
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Nikkei Asia
a day ago
- Nikkei Asia
Lalo Schifrin, composer of the 'Mission: Impossible' theme, dies at 93
Lalo Schifrin accepts his honorary Oscar in 2018, calling it a dream come true and saying, "It is mission accomplished." © Reuters (AP) -- Lalo Schifrin, the composer who wrote the endlessly catchy theme for "Mission: Impossible" and more than 100 other arrangements for film and television, died Thursday. He was 93. Schifrin's sons William and Ryan confirmed his death to trade outlets. The Associated Press' messages to Schifrin's publicist and representatives for either brother were not immediately returned.
