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Entity reports on the first Oscar-winning female producer.Jennifer Todd featured left. Photo by Rob Latour/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

The Oscar Awards have long struggled with diversity, facing major backlash last year with the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. But the Academy has taken another step toward rectifying the issue with its announcement that Jennifer Todd will produce the telecast this year.

Todd will mark the first female Oscars producer since the late Laura Ziskin produced the show 10 years ago in 2002. Todd and Ziskin are the only two women to have ever produced the ceremony.

The “Alice in Wonderland” producer will take the reins with Michael De Luca of “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Captain Phillips” fame.

READ MORE: ‘Hidden Figures’ Recognizes Black Women’s Contributions to NASA’s Space Race

Back in January 2016, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first responded to backlash by voting to increase the number of women and people of color in its membership by 2020.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement at the time.

However, Hollywood A-listers have insisted that the Academy is not the problem, or at the very least is only a small part of it. Whoopi Goldberg, who was the first African American woman to host the ceremony in 1994, spoke out about the issue on “The View” in January.

“It’s not that the people doing the nominating are too white,” she explained. “The problem is, people who can help to make movies that have blacks and Latinos and women and all that, that money doesn’t come to you because the idea is that there’s no place for black movies.”

George Clooney echoed Goldberg’s argument in February  telling ABC News : “The real problems are the diversity from the beginning, the people who are green-lighting films.”

READ MORE: 7 Incredible Films Directed by Women of Color

Chris Rock was the host for last year’s ceremony, during which he mocked the lack of diversity with a sketch placing black actors in scenes from the Oscar-nominated films, among other bits. The host for the 2017 ceremony has yet to be decided.

The 2017 awards season is already shaping up to be more of a game changer, with films featuring more diverse filmmakers and casts generating buzz. “Arrival,” “The Birth of a Nation,” “Hidden Figures,” “Fences,” and “The Jungle Book” are just a few of the movies expected to garner nominations at this year’s ceremony.

Dissenting opinions aside, time will tell if the 2017 nominees actually reflect the Academy’s push for diversity, as the choices will be announced on January 24.

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