Academy CEO Bill Kramer Says 25% of Members Now Live Outside the U.S.

The share of Academy members living outside the United States has grown from roughly 5% to 25% in a decade, CEO Bill Kramer announced in Tokyo — and he said that number is still rising.

Kramer spoke at an Academy panel during the Tokyo International Film Festival, alongside Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor and chief membership, impact and industry officer Meredith Shea. Festival director Hisamatsu Takeo moderated. The festival also gave Kramer its Global Cinema Leadership Special Award.

A decade ago, Kramer said, only 5% to 6% of members were based outside the U.S. "Now it's 25%, and that number is growing." The Academy counts about 70 members in Japan.

"People are making movies around the world, people are watching films that are not in their native language more and more," Kramer said. "We're making movies everywhere, we're viewing movies in a much more nimble and accessible way, and the Academy needs to reflect that."

Kramer framed the shift around a single turning point: Bong Joon Ho's 2020 best picture winner. "Of course, everybody remembers the moment when 'Parasite' won. It was sort of a pivot, a shift, I think, in our thinking about what was possible with global cinema at the Oscars, and that continues," he said. Every category at the most recent Oscars drew international representation, including best picture.

How does the Academy recruit abroad?

Beyond automatic membership for Oscar nominees and sponsorship by existing members, each Academy branch runs an Aperture committee that actively searches for filmmakers worldwide. Howell Taylor said: "Each year, we have very specific focus for countries that are potentially underrepresented."

Addressing a common suspicion head-on during the audience Q&A, Howell Taylor said: "Just because the membership has increased does not mean that the qualifications have somehow decreased. Our membership was smaller because we were not as global, and we weren't looking for excellence in filmmakers as much outside of the U.S."

The claim is easy to make; the Academy has not published country-by-country breakdowns to verify it. What is documented is the itinerary: over the past two years the organization has visited India, London, Rio, Morelia, Marrakech and Busan. Kramer called Tokyo the Academy's "first official Academy trip to the Tokyo Film Festival, but it won't be our last," and said city-by-city member events will continue "all over the world."

Howell Taylor described the president's role as "an incredible privilege because I get to meet storytellers all around the world in this position." She added: "I carry all the conversations that I have at various film festivals and member gatherings back to L.A. And it's so crucial to take those conversations and that information because it really does shape the work that the Board does and how our organization moves forward."

What does access actually cost?

Meredith Shea listed the removal of practical barriers:

• Submitting a film for Oscar consideration costs nothing in any category.
• More than 200 festival awards make short films automatically eligible.
• Members can watch contenders on the Academy Screening Room app.

"That's our deep commitment to global cinema, that we don't want individuals to feel like it's not open, that it is just an L.A.-based, Hollywood-centric organization," Shea said. "The Academy is global, and it welcomes all filmmakers."

A free broadcast for 2.5 billion people

The largest audience play is the move to YouTube. From 2029, Kramer said, the ceremony will stream free to 2.5 billion people in more than 30 languages. "So, for the first time, everyone around the world will have access to the show at the same time in the same format. And that is a huge, intentional move by the Academy to reach a bigger global audience," he said.

Asked whether the Tokyo festival could join the six festivals whose top prizes currently qualify films for the international feature race, Kramer was noncommittal: "We're looking to expand the number of festivals that help films qualify for the International Feature Film category. That's a process that we're undertaking this year, so stay tuned for more information on that." He said the first six were chosen largely on "the timing on the calendar" and that the Academy is "just beginning these conversations." Howell Taylor confirmed those discussions are "ongoing right now."

Could the international feature category become redundant as the Academy globalizes? Kramer answered flatly: "Right now, I don't see that category as being redundant."

Animation shows the trend in numbers. Shea, who ran the animated feature category for more than a decade, said submissions grew from 12 to close to 40 over that period, with at least six anime titles a year. "Japan has such a deep history of animated filmmaking," Kramer said, adding that the Academy's globalization "is good for all filmmakers, including Japanese filmmakers."

Speaking separately with Variety in Tokyo, Kramer, Howell Taylor, Shea and Academy Museum director and president Amy Homma also discussed AI, the festival route into the international feature race and the 2029 YouTube ceremony. No details of that conversation appeared in the panel itself.

Kramer closed with a nod to the wider moment: "I'm always struck on these trips, and this is no exception, by the warmth, by the sense of community, by the sense of collaboration, and how we all speak the same cinema language. And it's very heartening, especially in this moment of a lot of global complications and complexities."

Whether the promised festival-list expansion arrives in time to include Tokyo remains the open question — by Kramer's own account, those conversations have only just begun.