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3 weeks ago
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has laid off about 16 employees, all of whom worked in the Oscar organization’s collecting and preservations departments. That amounts to about 2% of the Academy’s workforce of almost 800. We hear the layoffs took place Wednesday.
The moves are the latest amid the Academy’s broader restructuring under CEO Bill Kramer, who has been streamlining operations across AMPAS’ membership and awards programs, education and emerging talent initiatives, collection and preservation initiatives, and its screenings and public programs since taking on the chief executive role in 2022.
Since then, the Academy has made key moves on the streamlining front, most recently in May, when it announced Amy Homma being promoted to Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures; Jennifer Davidson, upped to the newly created role of Chief Marketing and Communications Officer; and Matt Severson, the director of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, taking on the newly created position of EVP Academy Collection and Preservation.
“As part of our efforts to bring all of our collecting and preservation departments together — the archive, the library, and the collecting unit of the museum — we have spent the last several months assessing the structure of these teams,” Kramer told AMPAS staff in a memo obtained by Deadline (read it in full below). “As part of this work in building the new Academy Collection and Preservation Department, some team members will be leaving the Academy this week.”
Kramer over the summer secured an early renewal of his contract, a deal that runs through July 2028.
The news comes as the Academy’s museum announced today a slew of acquisitions for its collection, a number it pegged at 52 million items. Among them: Quentin Tarantino’s original handwritten script draft for Pulp Fiction, the Studio Ghibli animation collection including drawings by Hayao Miyazaki, and a screen-used guitar played by Lou Diamond Phillips in La Bamba.
Here’s his full memo to staff on the latest cuts:
Dear Academy Team,
As you know, we have been focused over the last two years on strategic structural changes at the Academy. We are working hard to bring teams together that share roles and responsibilities — and with this we have some colleagues who have left the organization while others have moved into new roles. While these moments can be challenging, they are designed to align our operations by combining functions with shared purposes and priorities.
As part of our efforts to bring all of our collecting and preservation departments together — the archive, the library, and the collecting unit of the museum — we have spent the last several months assessing the structure of these teams. As part of this work in building the new Academy Collection and Preservation Department, some team members will be leaving the Academy this week.
All impacted employees have been alerted to these changes — and while this effects less than 2% of our overall workforce, we know that having to say goodbye to colleagues is incredibly hard. We are deeply committed to providing support for those leaving and are finalizing a new reporting structure that we will share soon.
The Academy is part of two worlds that are rapidly evolving — the film industry and the non-profit arts community. We are working hard to stay focused on our mission while addressing this pivotal moment. And while we know how difficult these moments can be, we are confident in our steps to shape a sustainable organization that is well-suited to meet our goals now and in the future.
We are deeply grateful for your work and support. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Bill
