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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Invites Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Yoshiaki Nishimura, More
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its list of membership invitations on Wednesday. The list includes 683 invitations, the largest number of invitations in the Academy's history. The invitations are part of a series of new membership rules to promote diversity in the Academy's ranks, after this year's nominations led to a backlash against the perceived lack of diversity among nominees. The Academy initiated the changes in January, with the intent to radically diversify its membership by the year 2020.
The Academy extended invitations to the following Japanese creatives:
- Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty, When Marnie Was There director)
- Koji Yamamura (Mt. Head, Muybridge's Strings director)
- Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There producer)
- Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi (The Dam Keeper, "Moom" short, Tonko House founder)
- Robert Kondo (The Dam Keeper, "Moom" short, Tonko House founder)
- Tatsuya Nakadai (Belladonna of Sadness' The Devil, Giovanni's Island's Junpei Senō)
- Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Juon: The Grudge creative department)
- Beat Takeshi (Battle Royale's Kitano, live-action Ghost in the Shell's Daisuke Aramaki)
- Hirokazu Kore-eda (live-action Air Doll, Umimachi Diary director)
- Naomi Kawase (Sweet Bean, Still the Water director)
- Yoshihito Akatsuka (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 set decorator)
- Yohei Taneda (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 production designer)
- Shigeru Umebayashi (Onmyoji, Nighthead Genesis composer)
Additionally, Oldboy director Park Chan-wook was also invited.
Yonebayashi and Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Marnie) earned a nomination for the Animated Feature Film category this year, although Inside Out won the award.
The Academy has invited Miyazaki at least four previous times, and it also invited Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki in 2014. Miyazaki's Spirited Away film won an Oscar in 2003, and he personally came to Los Angeles to accept his Honorary Academy Award in 2014.
The Academy invited Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata (Only Yesterday, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) last year, but he declined the invitation.
Composer Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Departures), a frequent collaborator on Miyazaki's films, was invited in 2013. Kunio Katō was invited in 2009 after becoming only the second Japanese animator to win an Oscar with his "La Maison en Petits Cubes" ("Tsumiki no Ie" or House of Blocks) short.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Gregg Kilday) via Dark Horizons
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.