Why is the Academy planning to build a movie museum?
A frequent comment by out-of-town visitors is that there’s no single place to go to get a real sense of Hollywood. One of the reasons the Academy is planning a museum in Hollywood is to provide that place, so that visitors from around the world can return home with a greater understanding and appreciation of what Hollywood and the movies are all about.
At the same time, we’re thrilled to be able to expand the number and type of events we have long hosted for the Los Angeles community – film screenings like our Great to Be Nominated series, lectures by top filmmakers, and educational programs with area students.
Why did you select Hollywood as the location for the new museum?
After a search that spanned the greater Los Angeles area, we decided that Hollywood would be the best place to locate our museum. We hold the Oscar presentation ceremony in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. We house our film archive, our Science and Technology Council and several other departments in our Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study (a former radio and television studio on Vine Street which will be part of the overall campus). The Academy is committed to Hollywood — Hollywood the industry and Hollywood the community –– and so it made sense that our museum would be there, too.
Where exactly will it be?
We’ve chosen a site just south of the Sunset and Vine intersection, and will aim to develop two contiguous blocks into an eight-acre museum campus. This location is bounded by Fountain to the south, Delongpre to the north, Vine to the east, and Cahuenga / Ivar to the west.
Will you be keeping the buildings that are already there or building a new museum from the ground up? Do you have an architect picked out?
Our existing Pickford Center will remain and become part of the overall campus, but the rest of the museum buildings will be new. We are happy to announce that an architect has been selected for the project. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be designed by French architecture firm Atelier Christian de Portzamparc. Click here to find out more about the Academy's selection of Christian de Portzamparc.
How big will it be?
Big enough to provide a day’s worth of entertainment, surprise and delight for film buffs of all ages. We’re still working out the final size, but we expect the museum to be spread out over a number of buildings, with open-air gathering spaces in between.
When do you expect to break ground/open?
We’re about two years from breaking ground and about four years from opening.
What’s going to be inside the museum?
We are working with exhibit design firms to develop distinctive, enriching, and fun exhibits that will take visitors through the history of film, the process of filmmaking, and of course, the excitement of the Academy Awards.
Are you taking donations of movie artifacts?
We are not actively collecting at this point. But if you have an object you think might be perfect in a museum of this type, please tell us about it using the contact form.
How will you pay for all this?
We intend to raise most of the necessary money privately, through a museum fundraising campaign.
What about all the extra traffic a museum will bring?
Since many of us already live and work in Hollywood, we’re very sensitive to concerns about traffic. We are committed to minimizing any negative effects that the construction and operation of our museum might bring, and we have a number of experts and government agencies on our team of advisors, including traffic engineers, to help us in this regard.
Will there be a gift shop? Will you sell replicas of the Oscar statuette?
We plan to have a store where visitors can purchase items related to the museum experience and to movies in general. We don’t yet know what kinds of things those will be, but there won’t be replicas of the Oscar statuette for sale. No matter what we build, there will still only be one way to get an Oscar statuette: by earning it for accomplishment in film.
