Idris Elba, Tina Fey and Emma Watson are among 683 people invited this week to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the organisation's biggest diversity drive to date.

According to the academy's figures, the new class is 46 per cent female and 41 per cent people of colour. A full list of the invitees for 2016 can be seen here.

The institution has come under intense scrutiny for its predominantly white male membership and this year's #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which saw only white actors nominated for the top Oscar categories for the second year in a row.

Among the list is Australian actress Rose Byrne and Rupert Murdoch's sons - James and Lachlan Murdoch - in the executive category.

The academy's invitation-only 6000-strong membership base decides each year's Oscar winners and consists of directors, actors, Hollywood executives, costume designers, cinematographers and writers.

This year's class is the largest to date. In 2015, the academy invited only 322 new member into its ranks. But the massive diversity drive does little to improve the 90-year-old institution's bottom line.

People of colour represent only 8 per cent of academy members, a number that will go up to 11 per cent with the new class. Women will go up from 25 per cent to only 27 per cent.

Best actress winner Brie Larson said she was thrilled to make her powerful vote count.

"I got in!," she tweeted. "Excited to use my vote to nominate talent that reflects the real world we live in - DIVERSITY."

I got in! Excited to use my vote to nominate talent that reflects the real world we live in - DIVERSITY. https://t.co/PUzUkXe7MM— Brie Larson (@brielarson) June 29, 2016

Other new members include Tina Fey, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Ice Cube and directors Ryan Coogler, Julie Dash and Patty Jenkins.

In January, facing blistering criticism over the lack of nominations for any actors of colour for the second year in a row, Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced sweeping changes aimed at doubling the number of women and minorities - then about 1500 and 535, respectively - in the academy's ranks by 2020.

"The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up," Boone Isaacs said in a statement announcing the initiative.

But hitting the stated targets won't be easy. In 2012, The Los Angeles Times reported that Oscar voters were 94 per cent white and 77 per cent male, and by this year those numbers had budged only slightly.

To achieve its diversity goals, the academy would have to invite at least 375 women and more than 130 people of colour each year for the next four years, The Times estimated earlier this year.

Given the historical under-representation of women and minorities in Hollywood, some have wondered whether such goals can realistically be achieved without lowering the stringent membership requirements - something the academy's leadership has vowed not to do.

In an interview with The Times in February, former academy President Hawk Koch called the targets "impossible" to reach, saying, "There aren't that many qualified people, period, of any race or gender, to invite each year."

To help broaden the pool of possible candidates, the academy supplemented its traditional membership process with a global recruitment campaign. The Academy says the new class includes 283 international members from 59 countries.

"There are qualified people out there," Boone Isaacs told The Times in February. "We're going to do everything in our power to meet our goals, because we know that this is the right thing to do. We're going to make it happen."

- with The Los Angeles Times