James McAvoy in Atonement (top); Michelle Williams, Lucy in Wendy and Lucy (bottom)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 134 artists and executives to join its roster in 2009.
As per the Academy's press release, all the various branches could pick a maximum of 166 new members, but as in the previous years "the several branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than were proposed to them."
Most of the invitees are actors, among them several previous Oscar nominees, e.g., Casey Affleck, Melissa Leo, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and lots of young talent, e.g., James Franco, Michael Cera, James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Seth Rogen, Emile Hirsch. (But where are Robert Pattinson and Zac Effron??)
Among those listed in the other branches are Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (above, top photo); Slumdog Millionaire alumni Danny Boyle (above, lower photo), Anthony Dod Mantle, Chris Dickens, and A. R. Rahman; veteran French filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb; singer-composer Peter Gabriel; Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker James Marsh; Tom Cruise's former producing partner Paula Wagner; and Frozen River writer-director Courtney Hunt (in the writer's branch).
New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception at the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills in September.
The Academy's voting membership has held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003.