Director Haifaa Al-Manor, producer Effie T. Brown and technology manager Annie Chang joins the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board as the three new governors at large, Academy announced on Monday.
With the new additions to the Board created by the latest elections in each academy branch, the composition of the 55-person board will become 30 women and 25 men and 17 governors from under-represented societies.
Al-Mansour is a Saudi Director whose films “Wadjda” and “The Perfect Candidate” represented Saudi Arabia in the Oscar’s best international film film category; The first of these was the first feature film completely shot in Saudi Arabia and the first made by a female Saudi director. Brown is a producer whose work includes “Real Woman have curves”, “Rocket Science” and “Dear White People.” Chang is Vice President of Creative Technologies at Universal and has been chairman of the Academy Science and Technology Council.
The new governors were nominated by Academy President Janet Yang, who himself is a governor at large, although term limits forces her from the board this year. They were approved by the existing board.
While the majority of the governors are elected by members from the Academy’s 19 branches, the governors are nominated by the Academy president and are voted in by the board. The large positions were created in 2016 in the aftermath of the #Oscarsowhite controversy in an attempt to put more different voices in government positions.
Gregory Nava, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Reginald Hudlin occupied these positions for the first three years, followed by Devon Franklin, Rodrigo García and Yang for the next six.
