According to a Times analysis conducted in July, in a single stroke, the 2016 class of invitees took the academy 52% of the way toward its goal of doubling the number of nonwhites in its ranks. As for boosting the representation of women, however, the academy slightly lagged behind pace; the 2016 class brought the academy only about a fifth of the way toward its 2020 target. 
 
 For the academy to meet its own 2020 goals, The Times has estimated that in the next three years the organization will have to invite 85 people of color to become members each year – a seemingly manageable number given that there were some 280 nonwhites in last year’s class alone. 
 
 Hitting the target in terms of female members, however, may prove a higher hurdle. The Times estimates that the academy will need to add 395 women to its ranks per year to reach its target – significantly more than the 314 it invited in 2016. 
 
 Given the persistent lack of diversity in the film industry as a whole, some think that the challenge of diversifying the academy’s membership could grow more difficult, not easier. A 2016 report by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism starkly outlined an “inclusion crisis” at the major studios, where directors are 97% male and 87% white, while women hold 21% of top executive positions and nonwhite actors earn just 27% of speaking roles. 
 
 As the study’s authors bluntly put it, "The film industry still functions as a straight, white boys’ club.” 
 
 3. A number of relatively fresh faces and people best known from TV are likely to make the cut. Still, the academy insists it isn’t changing its standards for membership. 
 
 Along with many longtime industry vets, last year’s class included a number of younger people who have only come onto the scene in the last few years, like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” star John Boyega, as well as some who may be better known for their work in television than in film, such as Tina Fey and America Ferrera. 
 
 The academy prides itself on representing the cream of the crop in the film industry. While membership requirements vary among the individual branches, the academy’s overarching mandate states that candidates must have “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures.” 
 
 Given the historic underrepresentation of women and minorities in Hollywood, however, some have expressed doubt that the academy’s diversity goals can be met without the risk of changing these membership requirements. In an interview with The Times in 2016, former academy President Hawk Koch called the targets “impossible” to reach, saying, “There aren’t that many qualified people, period, of any race or gender, to invite each year.” 
 
 But even as the boundary between film and television continues to blur, the academy leadership has consistently maintained it will not alter the criteria for membership. Hudson says she is confident that there are still many highly qualified film industry professionals out there who have yet to be brought into the fold. 
 
 “There are so many artists who were not admitted in the past because we had a limit on how many new members we invited each year,” she told The Times last month. “So with the elimination of those [quotas] and the aggressive pursuit of excellence by all of our members, I think we will be able to expand in a more inclusive way for several years.” 
 
 4. Much of that expansion will continue to come from outside of the United States. 
 
 In recent years, as part of its effort to transform itself into a more international organization, the academy has supplemented its traditional membership process with a global recruitment campaign. Of last year’s class, more than 40% of the new members came from abroad – both established filmmakers and actors like J.A. Bayona and Alicia Vikander as well as many people far less well known to American moviegoers – representing 59 countries around the globe. 
 
 Not only does such a global expansion broaden the academy’s pool of potential members, bringing its diversity goals closer within reach, but it furthers the group’s mission to become the preeminent organization representing the film community around the world, not just in Los Angeles. 
 
 For foreign invitees, such as Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Mansour, who was invited to join last year, being brought into Hollywood’s most exclusive club can be a life-changing experience. “Sometimes as a woman, and especially one from a foreign country, it gets hard for them to find a project that fits you as a director,” Mansour told The Times last year. “[The academy] is the most prestigious organization in the world. It anchors you in. It makes me more relevant. People actually take you seriously.” 
 
 But, as the academy extends its reach across the globe, it remains to be seen to what extent this more international membership may or may not be reflected in the kinds of films and performances that earn Oscar recognition. ||||| The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a time where the world’s foremost creatives get together to celebrate progress, innovation, and excellence in creative communications. During the weeklong festival, there are panels and talks given by people from Alexander Wang , to Sheryl Sandberg, to Pussy Riot — it's an amazing time to hear about what's changing in the world of media. 
 
 This year, our very own Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth took the stage to interview iconic trailblazer Halle Berry, as part of a series by Interpublic Group that aimed to bring intersectional feminism to the festival by elevating the voices of women of color. 
 
 Halle was the first black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, and is still the only only black woman to have done so, 15 years later. She helped redefined American beauty standards, and continues to drive the dialogue about what it means to be a black woman in Hollywood. Now, with a multi-decade acting career under her belt, Halle is focused on using her voice and her platform to speak out about the issues that really matter to her. Halle opened up about being a mom to a black son in the age of Black Lives Matter , the strides we still need to make for diversity in Hollywood, and the mic-drop-worthy advice she'd give to her 18-year-old self. 
 
 You can watch the best moments from their conversation below. 
 
 On Breaking Boundaries 
 
 On Black Lives Matter 
 
 On True Diversity in the Film Industry 
 
 On Race and Identity 
 
 Halle Berry isn't the only celeb Elaine Welteroth has caught up with recently. Check this out: A Teen Vogue Intern Is Back on Television, and It's Not Lauren Conrad ||||| The impetus for the talent agency's Motion Picture Diversity Index came following the release of the Motion Picture Assn. of America's Theatrical Market Statistics report, which found that non-white moviegoers made up 49% of tickets sold in 2016, and 45% in 2015. Because the numbers outpace the 38% of the U.S. population who are non-white, CAA became interested in the audience makeup of the top-grossing films of the year. With additional data from comScore/Screen Engine's PostTrak and Gracenote's Studio System, the goal was to determine the correlative factors of diverse casting, diverse audiences and box office success. ||||| In 2002, when Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the best-actress Oscar, she dedicated the award to “every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.” It felt like an important, emotionally charged moment of change in Hollywood history. Fifteen years later, though, Berry remains the only woman of color to have received that prestigious award. And in a new interview, Berry confessed how hurt she is by the Academy’s lack of diversity progress—highlighting the 2016 Oscar nominations, which inspired the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, as “probably one of my lowest professional moments.” 
 
 Remembering the moment in 2016 when she heard that the Oscar nominations that year did not feature a single actor of color, Berry told Teen Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth that she sat there, remembering the emotional Oscar speech she gave in 2002. 
 
 “I don’t even remember where that speech came from, because I didn’t have a speech [planned],” Berry said, speaking at a panel at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. “I was pretty sure Sissy Spacek was going to win. That [sentiment] just was what was ruminating in my spirit during that whole process.” 
 
 When she heard about the 2016 nominations, though, she was struck with a sickening realization about her historic Oscar win. 
 
 “I sat there and I really thought, ‘Wow, that moment really meant nothing. It meant nothing. I thought it meant something, but I think it meant nothing.’” 
 
 “I was profoundly hurt by that, and saddened by that,” Berry continued. “It inspired me to try to get involved in other ways, which is why I want to start directing. I want to start producing more. I want to start making more opportunities for people of color. I have conversations more deeply with Academy members, and I’m trying to figure out how to help and add more diversity to the Academy.” 
 
 “These kinds of groups have to start changing and have to become more conscious and more inclusive,” Berry added. “I think black people . . . people of color . . . only have a chance to win based on how much we’re allowed to put out. That says to me that we need more people of color writing, directing, producing—not just starring. We have to start telling stories that include us.” 
 
 Since Berry’s win, eight women of color have been nominated in the best-actress category—Ruth Negga, of Loving, being the most recent.
– In her off-the-cuff acceptance speech, Halle Berry dedicated her 2002 Oscar for best actress to "every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened." But 15 years later, the opportunities are not at all like she imagined they would be. In fact, Berry says her win essentially did nothing to promote diversity in Hollywood. When only white actors scored Oscar nominations for acting roles in 2016, "I really thought, 'Wow, that moment really meant nothing. It meant nothing,'" Berry tells Teen Vogue, per Vanity Fair. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has since made strides to include more women and minorities—it's expected to reveal its "most diverse" class of new members Wednesday, reports the Los Angeles Times—but Berry is still the only black woman to have won the best-actress Oscar. To change that, "I want to start producing more. I want to start making more opportunities for people of color," who "only have a chance to win based on how much we're allowed to put out," she says. "We have to start telling stories that include us." This should help convince studios: A new study finds films with diverse casts pull in the most money, per the LA Times.