A massive achievement.
Oscar nominee Ruth Negga and established Irish actors Domhnall Gleeson and Ciarán Hinds are amongst the 744 people invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the Oscars: Academy Class of 2017.
Should those invitations be accepted, all three will be able to vote for Oscar nominees each year, a privilege already extended to more than 8,000 people who are already members of the academy.
The likes of Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Riz Ahmed, Gal Gadot and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson are amongst a record number of invitees to this year’s Academy class, while household Irish names such as Saoirse Ronan, Michael Fassbender, director Lenny Abrahamson and U2 frontman Bono are already members.
Commenting after the release of the invitations to the Class of 2017, AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs told Deadline: “All of our members are professionals at the top of their forms, every last one of them.
“And I believe that they vote based on their knowledge of particular skill sets, and that’s what they look for.
“What’s most important is that each year more, people are actually looking at more films and really taking a dive into the film, both from their branches and areas of expertise as well as the film itself, and that is certainly what the voting for Oscars is, but it also involves more people getting involved in our Nicholl Fellowship screenwriting awards, or the Student Academy Awards, or the Sci Tech area, all of what we do.
“It’s not just the Oscars.”
You can check out the full list of Academy members here.
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