The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has added 21 new members to its roster, marking a 20% increase in overall membership.
48% of the new members are women, while 29% are Black, 24% are Asian, 29% are Latinx and 19% are Middle Eastern/North African. The organization has been under fire this year for its lack of Black members.
These members will have immediate voting rights for the Golden Globes and will be able to immediately join the HFPA committees.
“We are thrilled to welcome these new members into our family,” HFPA President Helen Hoehne said. “We are building a new organization, one that is not focused on fulfilling quotas, but instead has diversity and inclusion at its core, has ethical conduct as the norm, and has people of color involved in every aspect of the Association — from membership to executive leadership. That is how we’re growing an inclusive environment, and for us to make this much progress in six months is a testament to our membership and our dedication to building something better.”
Additionally, the organization is offering support in the future to applicants not accepted this year so they have materials needed if they choose to reapply in 2022.
Earlier this month, the HFPA chose three external advisers, Shaka McGlotten, Santiago Pozo and Paula Williams Madison, to help select the group tasked with reviewing new member applications. The week prior, Jeff Harris, Dr. Joanna Dodd Massey and Sharlette Hambrick were selected as the independent HFPA board directors. The HFPA continues to look for a new CEO.
In the last month, the HFPA has elected a new president, named three external members to the Board of Directors (which consists of 2/3 of women and 1/3 of people of color), been in communications with studios throughout the industry and started the process of meeting with Hollywood publicists, an insider told TheWrap.
“Most, if not all of our members have spent countless hours over the past several months dedicating themselves to reform – from DEI training, to serving on committees to find new members, to representing the organization in meetings with key partners,” Hoehne said. “It’s clear that they love this organization, they love this industry and wanted to put in the work, reshaping our entire Association in a remarkably short amount of time.”
See below for the full list of new members.
• Raffi Boghosian, Al Arabiya
• Kelley Carter, ESPN (Global)
• David Caspi, Israel Hayom
• Yong Chavez, ABS-CBN
• Andrés Correa Guatarasma, El Universal
• Earl Gibson III, Getty Images
• Eun Seon Ha, KOFIC
• Hamdy Howaida, El Akhbar
• Itsuko Hirai, Movie Walker Press
• K.J. Matthews, DW-TV
• Juan Navarro, Televisa
• Jânio Carlos Vieira Nazareth, Cinépop
• Ruben Peralta-Rigaud, SensaCine
• Gerardo Prat, ¡HOLA! TV
• Kimberly Reyes, Film Ireland
• Mico Saad, TeN TV
• Asel Sherniyazova, AKIpress News Agency
• Gabriel Silva Lamboglia, El País
• Miriam Spritzer, L’Officiel Brasil
• Mario Pacheco Székely, El Universal
• Yuko Yoshikawa, Cinema Today