BEIJING, Feb. 22 -- The Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization
composed of over 6,500 filmmakers whose achievements have placed them at the top
of their craft.
The purposes of the Academy are
to advance the arts and sciences of motion pictures; foster cooperation among
creative leaders for cultural, educational and technological progress; recognize
outstanding achievements; cooperate on technical research and improvement of
methods and equipment; provide a common forum and meeting ground for various
film-related crafts; represent the viewpoint of actual creators of the motion
picture; and foster educational activities between the professional community
and the public.
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The Academy¡¯s field of activity does not include
economic, labor or political matters.
The Academy was organized in May 1927 as a nonprofit
corporation. Its original 36 members included production executives and film
luminaries of the time.
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. was the first president. Others
presidents include William de Mille, M.C. Levee, Conrad Nagel, J. Theodore Reed,
Frank Lloyd, Frank Capra, Walter Wanger, Bette Davis, Jean Hersholt, Charles
Brackett, George Seaton, George Stevens, B.B. Kahane, Valentine Davies, Wendell
Corey, Arthur Freed, Gregory Peck, Daniel Taradash, Walter Mirisch, Howard W.
Koch, Fay Kanin, Gene Allen, Robert E. Wise, Richard Kahn, Karl Malden, Arthur
Hiller, Robert Rehme, Frank Pierson and Sid Ganis, who has been president since
August 2005.
From its
founding until 1946, when it moved into a building at 9038 Melrose
Avenue in Hollywood, the Academy occupied a number of rented offices.
In December of 1975, the Academy dedicated a seven-story headquarters
at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. For the first time
in the organization¡¯s history, its administrative offices, the Academy Players Directory, the Margaret
Herrick Library, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater and other facilities were all located under
one roof.
Within a decade, however, the rapid growth of the
holdings of both the Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive necessitated
the search for a new, separate facility. In 1988 a 55-year lease was arranged
with the City of Beverly Hills for the conversion of its historic Waterworks
building in La Cienega Park into the new home of the Academy¡¯s library and film
archive, to be called the Center for Motion Picture Study. The library and film
archive occupied the structure in 1991, but by 1997 the crush of growing
collections resulted once more in the need for additional off-site storage. In
May of 2001 the Academy bought the former Don Lee-Mutual Broadcasting studios on
Vine Street in Hollywood and began converting them into the new home of the
Academy Film Archive and the Academy Players Directory. In 2006 the Academy
Players Directory published its final edition, and the Directory was sold to a
private concern. The building currently houses offices for the Academy Film
Archive, the Academy¡¯s Science and Technology Council, the Nicholl Fellowships
in Screenwriting program, and the planning staff for the proposed Academy
museum, as well as four temperature- and humidity-controlled vaults (three for
film, one for photos and documents) and the 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theater.
During the Academy¡¯s 75th anniversary celebration in 2002, the La Cienega Park building was designated the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in honor of the Academy¡¯s first president, and the building on Vine Street was dedicated as the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in honor of Academy co-founder Mary Pickford.
