Filipino American R&B singer and songwriter H.E.R, and Manila-based composer Len Calvo have been invited to join the Oscars Class of 2021.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stated that it has invited 395 artists and executives for their distinguished contributions to theatrical motion pictures.
The membership selection decisions are based on professional qualifications, with representation, inclusion, and equity remaining a priority of Academy Aperture 2025, it stated.
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However, the move to expand membership will promote +racial diversity+ as the Oscar awards appear to favor mostly white actors and artists, industry insiders noted.
The 2021 class comprises of 46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% people from 49 countries outside the United States. There are 89 Oscar nominees, including 25 winners, among the invitees.
H.E.R. aka Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, was born in California to a Filipina mother and an African American father. She recently won the 2021 Oscars’ Original Song Award for “Judas and the Black Messiah” — a film about the 1960s leader of the Black Panther Party in Chicago.
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In the San Francisco Bay Area where she used to sing, she was known as Gabi Wilson. Her album, “I Used to Know Her” earned five Grammy nominations. This year, she grabbed a pair of Grammys for Song of the Year and Best R&B Song for “Better than I Imagined.” One of her songs was used as the soundtrack in the Netflix series “Dear White People.”
Len Calvo, who is a composer, music arranger and singer, who is based in Manila, won numerous musical scoring awards from the Film Academy of the Philippines and the Gawad Urian. She was lauded for her work in “Pan de Salawal,” — the story of a gifted girl with mysterious healing powers who formed a friendship with her older neighbor. (AW)
