Oscars' Film Academy pledges to diversify membership by 2020

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, organizer of the Oscar awards, pledged on Friday to double its membership of women and minorities by 2020 through an ambitious affirmative action plan that includes stripping some older members of voting privileges. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who became the first African-American to assume the organisation's top post in the summer of 2013, hailed Friday's move as demonstrating the academy is ready "to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up." But Ava DuVernay, who became the first black filmmaker to earn a Golden Globe bid for her for Oscar-nominated civil rights drama "Selma" last year, said the academy's action was a long time in coming and taken only under duress.