In the directing category, there will be a 20 longlist of filmmakers, 10 men and 10 women, though no mandatory gender balance in the final six nominees. Acting nominees will also be selected from 15-strong lists and there will be six finalists rather than the previous five.

“The overwhelming feeling was that quotas were not what people wanted,” Lee said. She said “a wholesale change of culture” in the industry is what’s needed.

Samuelson said the review, which involved discussions with more than 400 people in the industry from under-represented groups, had been a “chastening” experience.

“People told us about their experiences, and their experiences were bloody awful,” he said.

In the U.S., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been striving to diversify for several years and this month announced inclusion standards for the Oscars that will come into effect for the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. Best picture nominees will have to meet specific requirements addressing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and disability in front of and behind the camera in order to qualify.

The American Academy’s diversity and inclusion standards were inspired by similar efforts by the British Film Institute, which supports and helps fund U.K. cinema. Meeting the standards has been a requirement for most public film funding in the U.K. since 2014. But a recent report said that even that has not yet improved racial inequality.