Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour, indie producer Effie T. Brown and Universal Pictures VP creative technologies and Academy Science & Technology Council Chair Annie Chang will be joining the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 55-seat board of governors as governors-at-large next month, the Academy announced on Monday.
The trio were appointed by outgoing president Janet Yang — who is herself, along with Devon Franklin and Rodrigo García, one of the three current governors-at-large who are about to finish their second consecutive three-year term, and therefore are mandated by Academy rules to step away from the board for at least two years — and were then confirmed by the full board to three-year terms.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Haifaa, Effie and Annie to the Academy’s board of governors,” Yang said in a statement. “Their wealth of experiences, perspectives and dedication will be vital to our ongoing global and industry outreach efforts. I also thank my fellow at-large governors Devon Franklina dn Rodrigo García for their incredible leadership over the past six years.”
The three governors-at-large seats were added to the board in Jan. 2016, in the immediate aftermath of a second consecutive year of Oscar nominations without a nonwhite acting nominee — a situation quickly labeled #OscarsSoWhite — to make sure that the board would always include at least three not-white-males tasked with looking out for the cause of inclusion in all actions undertaken by the board.
The original three governors-at-large, who were appointed by then-president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and confirmed by the board in March 2016, were Reginald Hudlin (directors branch), Gregory Nava (writers branch) and Jennifer Yuh Nelson (short films and feature animation branch).
As a result of the appointments of al-Mansour, Brown and Chang, on top of the general election results that were shared last week, the board, during the 2025-2026 term, will be 55 percent female and 31 percent members of underrepresented communities.
