The Academy invites 178 new members!

Behold the press release:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 178 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2011 to the Academy’s roster of members.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Tom Sherak. “Their talent and creativity have entertained moviegoers around the world, and I welcome each of them to our ranks.”

The Academy’s membership policies would have allowed a maximum of 211 new members in 2011, but as in other recent years, several branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than were proposed to them. Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003.

In an unprecedented gesture, the list of new members includes documentary filmmaker Tim Hetherington, who was killed in action in Libya in April. Hetherington had been a 2010 nominee for his film “Restrepo,” but died prior to the Academy’s spring meetings to select new members. The Documentary Branch proposed that Hetherington’s name be included among the year’s invitees. The governors agreed.

The 2011 invitees are:

Actors

Russell Brand – “Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”

Gerard Butler – “The Ugly Truth,” “300”

Vincent Cassel – “Black Swan,” “Eastern Promises”

Robbie Coltrane – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,” “Mona Lisa”

Bradley Cooper – “Limitless,” “The Hangover”

John Corbett – “Sex and the City 2,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”

Rosemarie DeWitt – “The Company Men,” “Rachel Getting Married”

Peter Dinklage – “Find Me Guilty,” “The Station Agent”

David Duchovny – “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “The X-Files”

Jesse Eisenberg – “The Social Network,” “The Squid and the Whale”

Jennifer Garner – “Arthur,” “Juno”

John Hawkes – “Winter’s Bone,” “The Perfect Storm”

Thomas Jane – “The Mist,” “The Thin Red Line”

Nastassja Kinski – “An American Rhapsody,” “Tess”

Beyonce Knowles – “Dreamgirls,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember”

Mila Kunis – “Black Swan,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”

Jennifer Lawrence – “Winter’s Bone,” “The Burning Plain”

Tea Leoni – “Ghost Town,” “Spanglish”

Anthony Mackie – “The Hurt Locker,” “Million Dollar Baby”

Lesley Manville – “Another Year,” “Topsy-Turvy”

Rooney Mara – “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Social Network”

Dominic Monaghan – “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

Connie Nielsen – “Brothers,” “Gladiator”

Ellen Page – “Inception,” “Juno”

Wes Studi – “Avatar,” “The Last of the Mohicans”

Mia Wasikowska – “Jane Eyre,” “The Kids Are All Right”

Jacki Weaver – “Animal Kingdom,” “Cosi”

Animators

Geefwee Boedoe – “Let’s Pollute,” “Monsters, Inc.”

Alessandro Carloni – “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Over the Hedge”

Sylvain Chomet – “The Illusionist,” “The Triplets of Belleville”

Jakob Hjort Jensen – “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Flushed Away”

Biljana Labovic – “The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger,” “Idiots and Angels”

Tomm Moore – “The Secret of Kells,” “Backwards Boy”

Teddy Newton – “Day & Night,” “Ratatouille”

Bob Peterson – “Up,” “Finding Nemo” (also invited to the Writers Branch)

Javier Recio Gracia – “The Lady and the Reaper,” “The Missing Lynx”

Andrew Ruhemann – “The Lost Thing,” “City Paradise”

Kristof Serrand – “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”

Shaun Tan – “The Lost Thing,” “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”

Simon Wells – “Mars Needs Moms,” “The Prince of Egypt”

Art Directors

Anahid Nazarian – “The Virgin Suicides,” “The Godfather, Part III”

Lauren E. Polizzi – “Cowboys & Aliens,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

At-Large

George Aguilar

Barry Bernardi

Christopher Dodd

Ted Gagliano

James L. Honore

Dawn Hudson

Beverly Pasterczyk

Randall Poster

Ric Robertson

David Schnuelle

Randy Spendlove

Beverly Joanna Wood

Casting Directors

Nina Gold – “The King’s Speech,” “Jane Eyre”

Jina Jay – “The Reader,” “Layer Cake”

Lora Kennedy – “The Town,” “Syriana”

Cinematographers

Frank Byers – “Illegal Tender,” “Boxing Helena”

Patrick Cady – “Lottery Ticket,” “Broken Bridges”

Danny Cohen – “The King’s Speech,” “Pirate Radio”

Lukas Ettlin – “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Middle Men”

Steven Fierberg – “Love & Other Drugs,” “Secretary”

Barry Markowitz – “Crazy Heart,” “Sling Blade”

Charles Minsky – “Valentine’s Day,” “Pretty Woman”

Lawrence Sher – “The Hangover,” “Garden State”

Eric Steelberg – “Up in the Air,” “(500) Days of Summer”

Costume Designers

Odile Dicks-Mireaux – “An Education,” “The Constant Gardener”

Sarah Edwards – “Salt,” “Michael Clayton”

Danny Glicker – “Up in the Air,” “Milk”

Directors

Gregg Araki – “Kaboom,” “Nowhere”

Susanne Bier – “In a Better World,” “After the Wedding”

Neil Burger – “Limitless,” “The Illusionist”

Lisa Cholodenko – “The Kids Are All Right,” “Laurel Canyon” (also invited to the Writers Branch)

Debra Granik – “Winter’s Bone,” “Down to the Bone” (also invited to the Writers Branch)

Tom Hooper – “The King’s Speech,” “The Damned United”

John Cameron Mitchell – “Rabbit Hole,” “Shortbus”

Yojiro Takita – “Departures,” “Himitsu”

Documentary

Jon Alpert – “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province,” “Lock-up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island”

Amir Bar-Lev – “The Tillman Story,” “Fighter”

Lesley Chilcott – “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” “It Might Get Loud”

Carl Deal – “Capitalism: A Love Story,” “Trouble the Water”

Charles Ferguson – “Inside Job,” “No End in Sight”

Tim Hetherington – “Restrepo” (posthumous)

Sebastian Junger – “Restrepo”

Thomas Lennon – “The Warriors of Qiugang,” “The Blood of Yingzhou District”

Diane Weyermann – “Waiting for ‘Superman’,” “Food, Inc.”

Ruby Yang – “The Blood of Yingzhou District,” “The Warriors of Qiugang”

Executives

William J. Damaschke

Richard M. Fay

Donna Langley

Leslie Moonves

Vanessa L. Morrison

Bill Pohlad

Rich Ross

Jeff Small

Thomas Tull

Film Editors

Tariq Anwar – “The King’s Speech,” “American Beauty”

Naomi Geraghty – “Limitless,” “Reservation Road”

Jon Harris – “127 Hours,” “Layer Cake”

Darren Holmes – “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Iron Giant”

Pamela Martin – “The Fighter,” “Little Miss Sunshine”

Joel Negron – “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “The Karate Kid”

Terilyn A. Shropshire – “Jumping the Broom,” “Eve’s Bayou”

Angus Wall – “The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Andrew Weisblum – “The Black Swan,” “The Wrestler”

Live Action Short Films

Luke Matheny – “God of Love,” “Earano”

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists

Judy Chin – “Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream”

Kathrine Gordon – “3:10 to Yuma,” “Ocean’s Eleven”

Trefor Proud – “W.,” “Topsy-Turvy”

Cindy Jane Williams – “Burlesque,” “Hancock”

Wesley Wofford – “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son,” “A Beautiful Mind”

Music

Terence Blanchard – “Inside Man,” “Malcolm X”

Fernand Bos – “Crazy Heart,” “Cold Mountain”

Graeme Revell – “Darfur Now,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”

Producers

Iain Canning – “Oranges and Sunshine,” “The King’s Speech”

Cean Chaffin – “The Social Network,” “Fight Club”

Kevin Feige – “Thor,” “Iron Man”

Gary Goetzman – “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Mamma Mia!”

Sisse Graum Jorgensen – “In a Better World,” “After the Wedding”

Jeffrey Levy-Hinte – “The Kids Are All Right,” “Laurel Canyon”

Todd Lieberman – “The Fighter,” “The Proposal”

Robert Lorenz – “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Mystic River”

Celine Rattray – “The Kids Are All Right,” “Grace Is Gone”

Emile Sherman – “The King’s Speech,” “Candy”

Emma Thomas – “Inception,” “The Dark Knight”

Gareth Unwin – “The King’s Speech,” “Exam”

Production Designers

Howard Cummings – “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” “John Grisham’s The Rainmaker”

Therese DePrez – “Black Swan,” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”

Guy Hendrix Dyas – “Inception,” “The Brothers Grimm”

Jess Gonchor – “True Grit,” “Capote”

Jane Musky – “Something Borrowed,” “Finding Forrester”

Eve Stewart – “The King’s Speech,” “Topsy-Turvy”

Public Relations

Susan Ciccone

Alissa Grayson

Jeffrey Hall

Jill Ann Jones

Mark Markline

Carmelo Pirrone

Ira Rubenstein

David Schneiderman

Loren Schwartz

Lance Volland

Set Decorators

Judy Farr – “The King’s Speech,” “Death at a Funeral”

Gene Serdena – “The Fighter,” “House of Sand and Fog”

Sound

Andrew DeCristofaro – “Hall Pass,” “Crazy Heart”

Joe Dorn – “The Wolfman,” “Spider-Man 3”

Marc Fishman – “Bridesmaids,” “Crash”

Lora Hirschberg – “Inception,” “The Dark Knight”

Chris Jargo – “Robin Hood,” “American Gangster”

John Midgley – “The King’s Speech,” “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”

Ed Novick – “Inception,” “The Dark Knight”

Hammond Peek – “King Kong,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

Brian Vessa – “Nemesis,” “Lambada”

Mark Weingarten – “The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Visual Effects

Tim Alexander – “Rango,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

Rob Bredow – “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The Polar Express”

Tim Burke – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,” “Gladiator”

Peter Chesney – “No Country for Old Men,” “Men in Black”

Paul Franklin – “Inception,” “The Dark Knight”

Kevin Tod Haug – “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” “Quantum of Solace”

Florian Kainz – “Mission: Impossible III,” “The Perfect Storm”

Marshall Krasser – “Iron Man 2,” “Titanic”

Sean Phillips – “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Polar Express”

Peter G. Travers – “Watchmen,” “The Matrix Reloaded”

Brian Van't Hul – “Coraline,” “I, Robot”

Mark H. Weingartner – “Sex and the City 2,” “Inception”

Writers

Stuart Blumberg – “The Kids Are All Right,” “Keeping the Faith”

Lisa Cholodenko – “The Kids Are All Right,” “Laurel Canyon” (also invited to the Directors Branch)

Debra Granik – “Winter’s Bone,” “Down to the Bone” (also invited to the Directors Branch)

Karen McCullah Lutz – “The Ugly Truth,” “Legally Blonde”

Aline Brosh McKenna – “27 Dresses,” “The Devil Wears Prada”

Bob Peterson – “Up,” “Finding Nemo” (also invited to the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch)

David Rabe – “The Firm,” “Casualties of War”

Anne Rosellini – “Winter’s Bone”

David Seidler – “The King’s Speech,” “The King & I”

Scott Silver – “The Fighter,” “8 Mile”

Kirsten Smith – “The Ugly Truth,” “Legally Blonde”

Aaron Sorkin – “The Social Network,” “A Few Good Men”

Daniel Waters – “Batman Returns,” “Heathers”

Additionally, the Academy invited John Coffey, Risa Gertner and Robert C. Rosenthal to Associate membership. Associate members are not represented on the Board and do not have Academy Awards® voting privileges.

Individuals invited to join multiple branches must select one branch upon accepting membership. New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception in September.

-Joey's Two Cents: Congrats to the new members!