Academy is actually a diverse, opinionated group

LOS ANGELES — Like taxes and NCAA basketball, cursing at the TV over the outcome of the Academy Awards is a rite of spring.

Every year viewers find axes to grind: How could "they" pick "Shakespeare in Love" over "Saving Private Ryan"? Why do "they" like Tom Hanks so much? How come "they" always go for Woody Allen's actors?

So just who are "they"?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is Hollywood's most exclusive club. Though Oscar viewers may deride it as a homogeneous body that makes bad calls come awards time, the academy actually is a big, broad assemblage of people with wildly different backgrounds and fiercely individualistic tastes.

The 5,700 voting members are artists, actors, directors, designers, musicians, writers, studio bosses, publicists, technicians and other movie professionals. Some are rich, some are working stiffs. They may be old or they may be kids.

The most common denominator: They are artistically inclined, so they never, ever think or vote with one mind.

"There's so much comment that it's too old or it's not really representative of the industry," said Geoffrey Rush, an academy member who won a best-actor Oscar for "Shine" and is nominated this year for "Quills." "But 50-some hundred people is a pretty amazing sample group. And it's not as fuddy-duddy as people like to make out."

There are two ways in: Be good enough on one particular film to score an Oscar nomination, or be good enough on your overall body of work to earn an invitation. Most voting members are in the latter group.

The term "gray" has been hurled at the academy — the notion that members tend to be stodgy and favor mainstream movies over edgier material.

But almost every year, the Oscars defy expectations by giving trophies to underdogs. Last year, relative unknown Hilary Swank won best actress for the gutsy "Boys Don't Cry." Four years ago, Juliette Binoche won supporting actress for "The English Patient" over sentimental favorite Lauren Bacall for "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

"With the Oscars, there's always an anomaly that runs counter to all the expectations and all the handicapping that goes on," Hanks said before this month's Screen Actors Guild awards. He is nominated for what could be his third Oscar, for "Cast Away."

Academy membership is a lifetime invitation, so the group does include many elderly voters. The academy also leans toward people who have been around long enough to build a track record.