The Academy Awards changes its rules and has unanimously decided - in the wake of criticism of this year's Oscars - to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.

The academy says it's also actively recruiting new members global.

Instead of a lifetime membership that allows people to vote for the Oscars even if they haven't been active in the industry for a while, each new member's voting status will last 10 years, before needing to be renewed. If any member has earned three 10 years period memberships, they will be added for life.

"It's the right thing to do", academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an interview Friday.

Oscars head Boone Isaacs said the new measures announced on Friday would "begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition".

Spike Lee applauds the Academy for making changes to increase diversity in its ranks, but he is still skipping the Oscars.

The Academy will add new members who are not Governors to its executive and board committees where key decisions about membership and governance are made. "I think an older generation got an understanding of why we do that kind of music, and the younger generation got a history lesson, and we got so much praise for the movie, it's like how could you be mad because one other academy or guild or somebody didn't say it's the number one?"

The furor started when the Oscar nominations were announced last week.

The academy's membership is made up of roughly 6,200 movie professionals around the world, and it was not immediately clear how many would be purged from the voting rolls by the new rule.

Longer-term progress faces a deeply entrenched white, male-dominated system of studios, talent agencies and production companies that have been slow to welcome minorities in lead acting roles or as directors and screenwriters. Members who do not qualify for active status will be transitioned to "emeritus status", under which they do not pay dues and have no voting privileges.

Just a few hours after the Oscars' announcement, Warner Bros issued a statement, describing the academy's action "a great step toward broadening the diversity and inclusivity of the academy and, by extension, the industry".

Confirming he would be joining his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in not attending, Will Smith said: "We're uncomfortable to stand there and say that this is OK". "I like that they've acted fast". Here to tell us more about the latest developments is Rebecca Keegan. Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all.

Hollywood A-lister George Clooney, himself an Oscar victor, has said the problem is the lack of options available to minorities in quality films.

Reaction came swiftly. Ava DuVernay, director of last year's best picture-nominee "Selma", tweeted that the changes were "one good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color and women artists".

Rampling, 69, told France's Europe 1 radio that, while it's impossible to know for sure, "maybe the black actors didn't deserve to be in the final stretch".

Musician Snoop Dogg and singer and actor Tyrese Gibson, who are both African American, also shared their support on social media - but neither had been invited to the ceremony, according to reports.