Academy's New Governors: Whoopi Returns, Ava Rises.

by Nathaniel R

Ava DuVernay is now on a Governor in the Director's Branch of the Academy

As you might imagine, steering a behemoth institution like The Oscars is no small task. To do that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has about 8 "officers" (including the current President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson) as well as a 3 "Governors" from each of the 17 branches.

Each governor serves a 3 year term so there aren't huge upheavals from year to year since only 33% of a board might change). Some of the Officers are also Governors within their respective branches. The Academy recently held elections again for the 2020/2021 season and these folks will be helping to make the difficult decisions like "what to do about the upcoming Oscar ceremony given COVID-19" and such...

First Time Governors!

• Debra Zane, Casting Directors Branch
  (credits include: The Hunger Games, The Twilight Saga, and more)

• Ava DuVernay, Directors Branch
  (1 Oscar nomination, 13th for Best Documentary)
  A great choice as she's a natural leader. She replaces Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) whose 3 year term was up. Denmark's Susanne Bier and Legend Steven Spielberg remain as the other Governors of this important branch.

• Stephen Rivkin, Film Editors Branch
  (1 Oscar nomination, Avatar)

• Linda Flowers, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch
  (credits include Widows, The Hunger Games, Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

• Lynette Howell Taylor, Producers Branch
  (1 Oscar nomination, A Star is Born)

• Rob Bredow, Visual Effects Branch
  (1 Oscar nomination, Solo)

Incumbents Reelected (so they'll be at the job until the summer for 2023) 

• Whoopi Goldberg, Actors Branch
  Her reelection means we have the same acting branch executives as last year. She runs this particular branch with Laura Dern and Alfred Molina (Molina's term is up in 2021).

• Mandy Walker, Cinematographers Branch
  She's so gifted but she has yet to be Oscar nominated. Next up for her: Mulan (whenever theaters reopen).

• Isis Mussenden, Costume Designers Branch

• Kate Amend, Documentary Branch

• David Linde, Executives Branch

• Christina Kounelias, Marketing and Public Relations Branch

• Charles Bernstein, Music Branch

• Wynn P. Thomas, Production Design Branch

• Teri E. Dorman, Sound Branch

• Larry Karaszewski, Writers Branch
  Karaszewski -- who writes really cool biopics like Ed Wood, Dolemite is My Name, and The People Vs Larry Flynt --  also serves as an Academy Officer (Vice President). Most importantly, for our particular fixations here at The Film Experience, he's a key figure in the International Feature Film competition each year as a Co-Chair of our much beloved Executive Committee. They've vastly improved that category with their tweaks over the past several years. We interviewed him for the Parasite piece we wrote for Vanity Fair last season.

Returning to the Board after a hiatus:

• Jon Bloom, Short Films and Feature Animation Branch

 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW GOVERNORS. 

Comments

[/3rtful]

Whoopi loves the Academy despite her frustration at being unable to secure further nominations after her initial win.

[MJ]

Wait... There’s a Casting Directors Branch? Does this mean there’s potential for casting directors and/or ensembles to be recognized?

[Someone]

Let's be honest: Ava is uninteresting as a director and is rewarded only because she's black and a woman.
Whoopi is another story: she's great and deserves the honor.

[Philip H.]

Whoopi is still THE icon in my book. I wish she was still getting interesting roles. Miss her on my screen.

/3rtful - those were different times. Whoopi walked so Viola and Octavia could run. Whoopi was the first black woman to receive two nods, and remained so until Viola joined her with her Best Actress nod for The Help. Then as soon as Viola hit three noms, Octavia followed the next year, making it look easy (in reality, they're two of the biggest black actresses ever, but the times have also changed drastically).

Thanks to the diversity boom of this era, the "one and done" for black actors is less expected as sealed fate than it was. Lupita almost got her second last year, and there were four black actresses nominated in lead the past decade, which is a major difference. I have a feeling that with the right role, ladies like Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Taraji P. Henson, Alfre Woodrard (or even Jennifer Hudson...) that were nominated once before could return, which would be exciting.

Hopefully Oprah can get one more iconic role since she's powerful enough to get nominated again, but got snubbed for her follow-up nod for The Butler. I was fine with that because Sally Hawkins made it in for that, but still... I want Oprah to be in that club.

[Fadhil]

Someone is correct.

[Marcelo - Brazil]

After watching Selma and When They See Us I would say that Ava is a very talented director.

[NATHANIEL R]

Someone & Fadhil -- What Marcelo said. i dont know how you can watch Middle of Nowhere and Selma and not think highly of Ava as a director. Maybe you only saw A WRINKLE IN TIME? (which was bad but lots of talented directors make a bad film on occasion) but you shouldn't judge any director on one film alone.

MJ - casting directors have been in the Academy for a long time. but there's lots of debate about them getitng their own category (and apparently always has been... because it's so hard to determine what they actually did for a movie -- given teh politics and the contracts and the directors choices and actor approvals and whatnot)... I think it's silly because you can debate who did what about virtually all the behind-the-scenes crafts. But that's apparently part of the problem.

[markgordonuk]

I've watched all of Ava's movies and she struggles with a larger budget and cast ,MON is the best of her films but we don't have lots of female directors getting oppurtunities let alone Black ones so let's celebrate.

[Someone (the real one)]

I think this Someone is a troll, because I post like Someone and didnot write this comment.

=(

Now i am gonna abandon this nick

[Biggs]

My immediate response to Someone: have you seen an of Ava DuVernay’s films? I think she’s very talented. Selma was my favorite film of that particular year.

[Someone (the real one)]

And my opinion is: regardless of her talent, Ava is a natural leader and is perfect for the job. And, yes, this woman is crazy talented. To imply she won the job because of her color is racist, period.

[Someone]

If truth is racist...

[TOM]

Whoopi truly loves the craft of movie-making and it’s future. She seems the type that would advocate for Gone With The Wind (with reservations), whereas DuVarney would want every print destroyed.

[Ryan T.]

Also I know she's mostly just the producer now, but she DID direct the first two episodes of QUEEN SUGAR thereby setting up how future directors work with the show and you would be wrong if you don't think that show isn't one of the best directed/shot show. Plus as a leader, she has made sure to get women and women of color in the director's chair for the show for almost all of its episode. That's amazing.