Reza wrote:Looking at some of these choices I feel the Academy is trying too hard to justify the diversity angle.
It's nice to see them invite two of the iconic Bengali stars who made waves in the films of Satyajit Ray. But I seriously doubt both Soumitra Chatterjee (now 83) and Madhabi Mukherjee (now 76) will accept. Seems too late in the day to send these two invites. This is just the Academy going waaay out of their way to fill in the blanks in order to shut off the brouhaha over the diversity issue. Quite foolish of them really.
I still think they are doing the right thing but agree its way to late. Hell, as the very least Madhabi Mukherjee should have been a nominee back in the 1960s.
I said below that I could compile a list of 100 French actresses more deserving than Polanski's wife and given time and assistance with someone more knowledgeable of French cinema than myself I still think I can but I came up with a list of more than 100 international actresses, most of which would never have been invited, and that I feel are more deserving than 80% of the actors that the Academy has invited. Also, they would make the Academy more diverse than say Blake Lively would.
I thought I would share the list. I do acknowledge that some of them are probably already members - I checked a couple of likely ones on the list anonymous provided a link to but I really don't wish to check every single person. I have also did not include any 'international' actress who has been nominated by the Academy in the past as they are likely to have already been invited. I did not include any American or British actresses but I did include Australian actresses and one New Zealand actress (Kerry Fox). Jane Birkin is the exception as most of her acting career has been in France. All of these actresses have at least 2 credits that are of note, which is more than I can say for some of those invited by the Academy.
The Deborah Lee-Furness inclusion is not a joke by the way. She is an accomplished actress in her own right. The evidence is on the screen (refer to Shame, Jindabyne & Blessed).
I know there are major omissions with the list and welcome additions but feel that this list illustrates the Academy still has along way to go:
Victoria Abril
Bibi Andersson
Anemone
Fanny Ardant
Ariane Ascaride
Pernilla August
Sabine Azema
Shabana Azmi
Josiane Balasko
Sareh Bayat
Jane Birkin
Nathalie Baye
Emmanuelle Beart
Florinda Bolkan
Sandrine Bonnaire
Carole Bouquet
Isabelle Carre
Margit Carstensen
Maggie Cheung
Anne Consigny
Nandita Das
Cecile de France
Emilie Dequenne
Maruschka Detmers
Emmanuelle Devos
Trine Dyrholm
Kerry Fox
Catherine Frot
Deborra-Lee Furness
Nicole Garcia
Pauline Garcia
Anna Geislerova
Luminita Gheorghiu
Adele Haenel
Leila Hatami
Irm Hermann
Maria Hofstatter
Sandra Huller
Irene Jacob
Krystyna Janda
Julia Jentsch
Do-yeon Jeon
Megumi Kagyrazaka
Anna Karina
Marthe Keller
Kirin Kiki
Sandrine Kilberlain
Kyoko Koizumi
Agata Kulesza
Sidse Babett Knudsen
Carole Laure
Melanie Laurent
Francoise Lebrun
Virginie Ledoyen
Gong Li
Susanna Lothar
Noemie Lvovsky
Judith Magre
Deborah Mailman
Maiwenn
Anamaria Marinca
Eva Mattes
Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Radha Mitchell
Nobuko Miyamoto
So-Ri Moon
Laura Morante
Yolande Moreau
Frances O’Connor
Bulle Ogier
Kati Outinen
Marisa Paredes
Leah Purcell
Marie Riviere
Alba Rohrwacher
Beatrice Romand
Cecilia Roth
Brigitte Rouan
Ludivine Sagnier
Dominique Sanda
Hanna Schygulla
Edith Scob
Mathilde Seigner
Barbara Sukowa
Grazyna Szapolowska
Magda Szubanski
Audrey Tautou
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Sylvie Testud
Melanie Thierry
Ana Torrent
Lea van Acken
Monique van de Ven
Karin Viard
Jutta Wachowiak
Kerry Walker
Franziska Weisz
Angela Winkler
You
Yuh Jung Youn
Jeong-hie Yun
Antonia Zegers
Tao Zhao
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)