Latest in Oscars

Film award seasons, most of them, follow a curved track. The action begins in one place (at the Telluride festival), then loops around to end somewhere else (with the Oscars at the Dolby Theater, unless the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences exercises its early termination option with that venue in…

New Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer continues what appears to be a major reorganization of AMPAS with yet another newly created position and appointment. Jenny Galante has been promoted to EVP Revenue and Business Development, Kramer announced today. She will report directly to him. A…

In an attempt to further cement its dedication to diverstity across all activities, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has promoted Jeanell English to EVP Impact and Inclusion, Academy CEO Bill Kramer announced today. English will report directly to Kramer. In this newly created executive job English will…

UPDATED with latest: Awards shows, film festivals and related promotional events have largely returned to (a new) normal in 2022, and with that has come a burgeoning calendar of events. Emmy season has shifted into high gear as the late-summer and fall festival circuit shapes up, along with key dates for the various…

Wow. Bill Kramer's lightning strikes at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—into the chief's job 17 days early, Chief Operating Officer Christine Simmons out by mid-morning, Jacqueline Stewart in place to take his old Academy Museum post less than a week later—are impressive. Even the Academy's often…

EXCLUSIVE: Christine Simmons is out as COO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as new CEO Bill Kramer takes the Oscar org’s reins today — weeks ahead of his scheduled start date. Simmons’ departure is effective immediately, but no successor has been named. The Academy unveiled her exit in an email this…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is inviting 397 artists and executives to join the Oscar organizer’s membership ranks. The prospective 2022 class includes 71 Oscar nominees and 15 winners, with 44% of the invitees women, and 37% of the group belongs to underrepresented…

If you happen to care about the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (at least in its first fifty years), you'll have no shortage of reasons to read Bruce Davis' forthcoming book, The Academy and the Award. The boardroom fights—Davis, the Academy's former executive director, got access to the…

Brad Pitt holds forth on what he calls “this last semester or trimester” of his career in a thoughtful and somewhat elegiac interview for the cover of GQ’s August issue. “I consider myself on my last leg,” the Academy Award winner says in the piece, "this last semester or trimester. What is this section gonna be? And…

Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin, and past Oscar nominees producer Jason Blum and director Jason Reitman are among first-time members elected to the Board Of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as AMPAS announced its new 2022-2023 Board today. In addition to Matlin for the Actors Branch, Reitman for…

As one of its final acts, the current Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted honorary Oscars to directors Peter Weir and Euzhan Palcy and songwriter Diane Warren and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Michael J. Fox. They will be presented at the 13th Governors Awards on…

Bruce Davis, say the notices, is finally ready to publish his monumental history of Hollywood’s film Academy. Twelve years in the making; part memoir, part chronicle; the book—The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—is due this fall from Brandeis…