The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ In-Person Programming Will Include Screening Of MALCOLM X With Guests Spike Lee and Denzel Washington – Opens September 30

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures today announced its schedule of inaugural in-person screenings and public programs, which will begin on September 30 when the museum opens. The Academy Museum is the largest institution in the United States devoted to exploring the art and science of movies and moviemaking.

During the first three months of the Academy Museum’s opening, the museum will offer the public a robust, dynamic, and diverse slate of over 115 film screenings, discussions, and programs for film lovers of all ages, beginning with two special presentations of The Wizard of Oz (USA, 1939) featuring live musical accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony conducted by Academy Award®-nominated composer David Newman.

Other highlights of the museum’s first few months of in-person programming include the launch of ongoing series:

• Stories of Cinema: featuring screenings of films highlighted in the museum’s core exhibition, including Real Women Have Curves (USA, 2002) and The Way of the Dragon (Hong Kong, 1972).
• Oscar® Sundays: held every Sunday evening in the David Geffen Theater, this series celebrates films that have been honored at the Academy Awards®. For the series’ first iteration, we are celebrating the work of women directors, including Harlan County, U.S.A. (USA, 1976) and Seven Beauties (Italy, 1975).
• Family Matinees: held every Saturday for families of all ages, screenings will include Moana (USA, 2016), The Book of Life (USA, 2014), and Labyrinth (UK/USA, 1986).
• Legacy: launching with a discussion between Laura Dern and her parents Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.
• In Conversation: launching with a discussion of how to contextualize cinema, featuring producers Effie T. Brown and Heather Rae.

Special series and standalone screenings for our opening months include:

• Malcolm X in 70mm: a screening for Academy Museum Members of the seminal film, with special guests Spike Lee and Denzel Washington.
• Oscar® Frights: featuring screenings of Oscar®-winning and nominated horror films, including Get Out (USA, 2017) and Psycho (USA, 1960).
• Hayao Miyazaki: in conjunction with the Academy Museum’s landmark exhibition on Hayao Miyazaki, the Academy Museum will screen the filmmaker’s complete body of work as a feature director, including My Neighbor Totoro (Japan, 1988) and Spirited Away (Japan, 2001).
• Imperfect Journey: Haile Gerima and His Comrades: following honoring Haile Gerima at the Academy Museum Opening Gala, the museum is thrilled to present this series focused on Haile Gerima’s work as a director and the work of some of his mentees and comrades, including Malik Sayeed, Bradford Young, and Arthur Jafa.
• Sound Off: A Celebration of Women Composers: in honor of the Academy Museum’s gallery created with composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, Sound Off will feature screenings of films scored by women composers, including Joker (USA, 2019), scored by Guðnadóttir and Tron (USA, 1982), scored by Wendy Carlos.
• Retrospectives of films by Jane Campion and Satyajit Ray, the latter of which draws from the Academy Film Archive’s rich holdings of Ray’s films.
• Beyond the Icon: Anna May Wong: which celebrates the early film star’s work and legacy and includes screenings of Piccadilly (UK, 1929) and Shanghai Express (USA, 1932).
• Special screenings, including the 20th anniversary of Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (Canada, 2001).

Virtual programs will continue leading up to the museum’s opening, including a conversation with Oscar®-winning writer-director Spike Lee and writer-director-producer Shaka King, and a 20th Anniversary screening of Y tu mamá también (Mexico, 2001)with a conversation between cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki and writer-director Alfonso Cuarón, both recipients of multiple Oscars®.
 
Bill Kramer, Director and President of the Academy Museum, said, “We are delighted to share details of our opening in-person screenings and programs. Over the last several months, the programming and education teams have done an incredible job of creating a series of robust and dynamic virtual programs. We continue these through September, highlighting the work of Anna May Wong, Spike Lee, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki and Alfonso Cuarón, and then launch our in-person public programs with two screenings of The Wizard of Oz with a live orchestra. As with all of our exhibitions and initiatives, we are committed to showcasing the diverse art and artists of moviemaking in our theaters and educational spaces.”

Jacqueline Stewart, Chief Artistic and Programming Officer of the Academy Museum, said, “Presenting films and thoughtful educational programs that feature moviemakers is at the heart of our work to share the art and science of cinema, a mission that extends beyond and complements the exhibitions on view in the museum’s galleries. The museum’s schedule of opening programs illustrates the ways the Academy Museum will explore wide-ranging topics in film history while serving as a catalyst for new dialogues inspired by cinema and moviemaking.”

Future programs launching in early 2022 include screenings of the works of Spike Lee and Pedro Almodóvar; masterpieces from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema; Branch Selects—Academy Member-curated screenings that delve into different craft and scientific areas of film production; and much more.

In addition, education and family programs will be ongoing at the Academy Museum. Programs will take place throughout the museum in exhibition galleries, theaters, and the Shirley Temple Education Studio, and will include teen programs, family studio activities, family matinee screenings, and school tours. Accommodative tours for our hard of hearing and deaf communities, and low vision and blind communities will be offered monthly as well as accommodative family film screenings for neurodivergent viewers. Family public programs will kick off with Community Days planned for October and November and a full schedule of family matinees may be accessed here.

The museum’s inaugural programs are made possible by the kind support of donors including Richard Roth Cinema-Arts Fund, Participant, Eric and Melina Esrailian, Dr. Kathy Fields and Dr. Garry Rayant in honor of Sid and Nancy Ganis, Julia and Ken Gouw, Ruderman Family Foundation, Gigi Pritzker, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Jacob Andreou and Carly Steel, Esther Chui-Chao, Robert and Miryam Knutson, Dr. Peter Lam Kin Ngok of Media Asia Group Holdings Limited and Televisa-Univision. Generous support is also provided by Istituto Luce Cinecittà.

Tickets to film screenings and public programs will be available for purchase on the Academy Museum’s website starting August 5, 2021 at 9am PDT.  

You can see the full schedule of the Academy Museum’s film screenings and public and educational programs here.

The Academy Museum’s film programming is organized by Bernardo Rondeau, Senior Director, Film Programs; Kiva Reardon, Film Programmer; Robert Reneau, Specialist, Film Programs; and Hyesung ii, Coordinator. The Academy Museum’s Public and Educational programming is organized by Amy Homma, Senior Director Education & Public Engagement; Julia Velasquez, Manager, Youth Programs; Eduardo Sanchez, Manager, Public Programs; Stephanie Samera, Manager, In-Gallery programs; Lohanne Cook, Public Program Specialist; and Caitlin Manocchio, Education Department Coordinator.

SCREENINGS AND PROGRAMS: CALENDAR

July 22–August 5 | Virtual Program – Film Screening + Discussion: Piccadilly

September 7, 6pm | Virtual Program – Spike Lee and Shaka King, In Conversation

September 16, 5pm |Virtual Program – Y tu mamá también 20th Anniversary

September 26 | Malcolm X in 70mm―for Academy Museum Members 

September 30, 2pm and 7:30pm | A Symphonic Night at the Movies: The Wizard of Oz with Orchestra

October 1, 6pm | Contextualizing Cinema: Effie T. Brown and the Academy Museum’s Inclusion Advisory Committee

October 2–November 14 | Imperfect Journey:  Haile Gerima and His Comrades

October 2–November 27 | Family Matinees

October 3–31 | Oscar® Frights!

October 30 and November 27 | ASL Tours: Stories of Cinema

October 5–November 27 | Hayao Miyazaki

October 6–November 25 | Sound Off:  A Celebration of Women Composers

October 8–November 26 | Stories of Cinema

October 16, 6pm | Legacy Conversation: Laura Dern with Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern

October 30 | Calm Mornings + Accommodative screening of The Book of Life

October 24 and November 21 | Visual Description Tours: Stories of Cinema

October 31 | Halloween Transformations Community Day

November 7–28 | Oscar® Sundays

November 4–23 | You Oughta Know:  The Films of Jane Campion

November 22-30| Satyajit Ray: 1955-1968

November 13–27 | Beyond the Icon: Anna May Wong

November 15 | 20th Anniversary Screening of Atanarjuat:  The Fast Runner

November 21 | Sound and Music Community Day

REGISTRATION AND TICKETING FOR FILM SCREENINGS AND PROGRAMS
Tickets for film screenings and public programs are sold separately and do not require general admission to the museum. All tickets will be available beginning August 5. Tickets will be available only through advance online reservations via the Academy Museum’s website.

Film screening tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors (age 62+), $5 for college students, $5 for children (age 17 and younger), and $8 for Museum Members.

Public and education program tickets range from free with admission to $20 for adults.

General admission tickets for the museum’s exhibitions—Stories of Cinema, Hayao Miyazaki, The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection , and Backdrop: An Invisible Art—are $25 for adults, $19 for seniors (age 62+), and $15 for students. Admission for Museum Members, visitors ages 17 and younger, and California residents with an EBT card will be free. Free admission for visitors ages 17 and younger is made possible by a gift from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, in honor of Academy Museum Honorary Trustee Sid Ganis.

The Oscars® Experience—an immersive simulation that enables guests to feel as if they are walking onto the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and accepting an Oscar®—will be accessed via a separate $15 ticket. A general admission ticket is required to access The Oscars® Experience.

Museum Members will receive complimentary general admission for unlimited visits and priority admission. Visitors can learn more about membership benefits, which include a 10% discount in the Academy Museum Store, exclusive members-only advance film screenings, and access to a ticket presale, by visiting the museum’s website.

The museum will require visitors to follow all current COVID-19 public health guidelines by the state of California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in place at the time of their visit.