Academy explains why Straight Outta Compton cast not invited to Oscars

By EURWeb

When news broke that the cast of “Straight Outta Compton” were not invited to this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, it only fueled further uproar over the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Ice Cube – the executive producer of the film – previously said that he’s never attended the show in the past so this year will be no exception. The only two people connected to the film who will attend are the two white writers nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

The Academy has responded to the report that cast members Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Marlon Yates Jr., Aldis Hodge and O’Shea Jackson Jr. were snubbed from the event, saying only those who are nominated receive invites.

“The Academy invites the nominees only, and each studio gets a limited ticket allotment, based on the number of nominated films, to use at their discretion. It has been this way for decades,” an Academy spokesperson tells PEOPLE exclusively.

While the number of tickets a studio gets is dependent on how many nominees they have, Academy members must enter a lottery to score them.

Ice Cube and the cast will most likely be turning up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the NAACP Image Awards, unmoved by the planned Oscars boycott that was triggered by the lack of actors of color among the nominees in the annual ceremony’s top acting categories.

Last week, academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced historic changes to make the Academy’s membership more diverse. These changes include the reframing of lifetime voting rights, new governor seats have been added and committees restructured. According to the Academy’s website, the goal is to double the number of diverse members by 2020. The move comes swiftly after Boone Isaacs said she was both “heartbroken and frustrated” at the lack of diversity represented in this year’s nominees for the second year in a row.

“I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees. While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion,” Boone Isaacs wrote. “This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes. The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership.”

This article originally published in the February 1, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.