#Academy museum of motion pictures movie#

Six films and filmmakers are tentpoles of the Museum’s “Components of Moviemaking” exhibit: “Citizen Kane” (1941), “Real Women Have Curves” (2002, Bruce Lee, Emmanuel Lubezki, Oscar Micheaux and Thelma Schoonmaker. Pedro Almodovar and Spike Lee have sizable rooms from their careers on display. The Museum is opening with a gorgeous and delightful Hayao Miyazaki retrospective, featuring color and exhibits and treasures from Studio Ghibli and the Miyazaki archives. Several deep-dive rooms highlight different filmmakers and films I expect many of these will rotate in and out over the years to come. You could camp out here for quite some time and cycle through clips like Marlon Brando’s Best Actor win for “The Godfather” (1972) as accepted by Sacheen Littlefeather, Marlee Matlin’s Best Actress win for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986), Jessica Yu’s Documentary Short win for “Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien” (1996), Michael Moore’s Documentary Feature win for “Bowling for Columbine” (2002), Ruth Carter’s Best Costume Design win for “Black Panther” (2018), up through Chloe Zhao’s Best Director win for “ Nomadland” (2020). Up next for Oscar fans is a vast room of color and sound featuring video displays of select acceptance speeches through the years, year-by-year highlights of each award year and Oscar ceremony, Oscar set recreations and video montages, and some programs and other event memorabilia. One empty box on display represents the missing Oscar given to Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress for “Gone With the Wind” (1939). Many of these Oscars are “firsts” - such as Sidney Poitier’s Best Actor from “Lillies of the Field” (1963), Best Visual Effects Oscar for “Star Wars” (1977), Best Documentary Oscar for “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), Best Animated Feature for “Shrek” (2001), and Best Adapted Screenplay for “ Moonlight” (2016). First is a rounded room featuring twenty Oscar winners and nineteen Oscar statues in a bright, gold, blazingly-lit exhibition. Someone or something has to be “the first” - and there are a lot of firsts represented in the Academy Museum.įor Oscar aficionados, the crème de la crème are two adjacent rooms in their Stories of Cinema exhibit.

#Academy museum of motion pictures movie#

Movies and filmmakers who stand the test of time? Movies and movie makers who were groundbreakers? Though a few exceptions are on display (“Scary Movie 2” storyboards, anyone?), I think it’s fair to say that most of the items and exhibitions on display can be roughly thought of as being new and fresh for their time, whether they enjoyed awards recognition or not. Instead, it’s something else, more heavily focused on the craft of moviemaking, with a bent towards something broader than who and what won awards. Throughout my visit, it was clear that the Museum is not a museum focused solely on awards and recognitions given out by AMPAS over the past 93 years. We are on track to open the Academy Museum in 2017.” As we know now, delays happened, a global pandemic occurred, and the Museum is now ready to open this week.

I became a member of the Academy Museum early on in their fundraising efforts - in my email archives, I’ve got an upbeat “Happy New Year 2015!” message that says, “We have raised $230 million of our $300 million goal, and we plan to enter construction in June of 2015. I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy a “member preview” of the Academy Museum today before it opens to the public this Thursday, September 30th.