Each year, around 200 new members are invited to join via one of 17 branches (actor, director, designer, etc).
"Caucasians currently make up 90% or more of every academy branch except actors, whose roster is 88% white.
According to the LA Times, the academy's 15 branches are almost exclusively White and male with Whites currently making up 90percentt or more of every academy branch except actors, which is 88percentt White.
Why do a billion of us, rapt followers of the Oscar broadcast, persist in thinking that the annual meeting of the academy's clans -- Actors Branch, Writers Branch, Directors Branch and so forth -- has anything to tell us about the wider world?
The Academy was Mayer's ploy to unite the high rollers of the industry's five branches--actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers--and at the same time raise the respectability of the movies and lessen the increasing power of the unions.
As for the Oscars themselves, academy members vote along professional lines: People in the actors' branch vote for actors, members of the directors' branch vote for directors and so on.
But Russell's film is much loved, particularly by the actors' branch.
"[It's] nominated for all four acting awards which is a sign of extreme strength since the actors' branch of the academy is by far the biggest".
There is a lot of crossover in that group with the Academy's actors branch, its largest, so that vote weighs heavily.
But that hasn't stopped snappily titled business Canvas Clocks (A5) – Actresses (they also have an actors branch) from making them its speciality.
