The Sphere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in March 2021.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a film museum opened in 2021 located in Los Angeles, California. The first large-scale museum of its kind in the United States,[2][3] the Academy houses more than 13 million objects from notable films, and is dedicated to the history, science, and cultural impact of the film industry.
Originally expected to open in 2020, its completion and opening was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] The museum eventually opened to selected celebrity guests on September 25, 2021,[4] and to the public on September 30.[5][6]
Soon after its opening in September 2021, the museum attracted criticism for a perceived lack of focus on Jewish industry pioneers such as Carl Laemmle and Jack Warner, as first reported by Sharon Rosen Leib in The Forward.[7][8]Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt expressed his disappointment, stating "I would've hoped that any honest historical assessment of the motion picture industry — its origins, its development, its growth — would include the role that Jews played in building the industry from the ground up". Rolling Stone,Bill Maher and Bari Weiss also raised the issue.[9][10][11] In January 2022, the Academy Museum announced plans to create a permanent exhibit dedicated to Jewish industry pioneers.[12]
On July 14, 2022, the museum voluntarily recognized Academy Museum Workers United as the bargaining representative for 160 of its employees.[13]
Design
The design of the museum was overseen by Italian architect Renzo Piano. The exterior of the May Company building, dedicated as the Saban Building following a $50 million donation from Cheryl and Haim Saban,[14] was refurbished with new limestone, as well as new gold leaf tiles for its corner "cylinder".[15]
The Saban Building's lobby includes two exhibit areas, the Spielberg Family Gallery and the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery.[16][17][18] The Shirley Temple Education Studio will be devoted to workshops on filmmaking, and include a collection of items and memorabilia from Shirley Temple's career.[19]
A spherical structure was built as an extension of the main Saban Building, connected via skyways, which features the glass-domed Dolby Family Terrace. The museum features two theater halls that will be used for film screenings, programming, and other special events; the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater in the Sphere, and the smaller, 288-seat Ted Mann Theater in the lower level of the Saban Building.[18][20][21]
Academy Museum Gala
Academy Museum Gala is conducted every year to raise funds by public display of cinematic experience that includes showing filmmaking process in a raw form, or showing history of cinema.
Academy Museum Gala 2023 has been the third Gala in a row. This year Academy has managed to raise funds of $10 million. This year Academy Museum gala honored Meryl Streep, Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey.
The second and third floors of the museum will feature the opening exhibition "Stories of Cinema".[28] The inaugural temporary collection of the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery was devoted to Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.[2][29] The exhibition opened on September 30, 2021, and was on view until June 5, 2022. This was the first time Miyazaki’s work was featured in a major retrospective in the United States. The collection also displayed pieces on public view for the first time outside of Japan.[30]
The 11,000-square-foot exhibition features more than 300 objects, including original image boards, character designs, storyboards, layouts, backgrounds, posters, and cels. The exhibition’s curators, Jessica Niebel and assistant curator J. Raúl Guzmán worked with Studio Ghibli and the Ghibli Museum in Japan to gather all the materials. There are interactive installations displayed throughout the exhibit, the “Mother Tree,” Skyview, and Magical Forest, to name a few, each inspired by a different Miyazaki Film.[31]
Following that will be an exploration of the history of Black cinema to 1971.[1]
Galleries in the museum will be dedicated to a variety of topics. Inaugural galleries covered:[1]
A "largely uncritical" exhibit on the history of the film industry, slated to be called "Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies", was scrapped by Kramer to be replaced with a more "complex, complete" exhibit.[1]
In May 2024, the museum opened its first permanent exhibition, "Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital".[32]
The museum is also a site for Los Angeles premieres of new films and television series.[33][34] Films and series that have held premieres here include:
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Wilshire/Fairfax (2025)
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