The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has announced its first round of exhibitions scheduled for the 2022-2023 season. As the largest museum dedicated to film in the United States, it will focus on further advancing its mission to promote and preserve the art of filmmaking through a diverse array of exhibitions.
Starting in August, the museum will be opening its expansive exhibition titled Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, which aims at exploring in-depth the history of Black Cinema, from its early days to the civil rights movement. Some of the iconic names featured in the exhibition include Lena Horne, Sidney Poitier, Paul Robeson, William Greaves, Josephine Baker, the Nicholas Brothers, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis, among others.
Beginning November 3, the museum will also host galleries dedicated to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 cult classic The Godfather and the works of the French Filmmaker Agnès Varda. Organized by Assistant Curator Sophia Serrano, the former exhibition, titled The Art of Moviemaking: The Godfather, will focus on showcasing the process of putting together the film masterpiece, featuring costumes, props, scripts, and equipment that highlight the contributions of each branch involved in the production of the film. Leading up to this rotation, the museum’s store will release an exclusive limited-edition The Godfather LP in partnership with Amoeba Records.
The latter exhibition is titled Director’s Inspiration: Agnès Varda and will highlight the filmmaker’s personal influences and films from her inspiring sixty-year long career. Organized by Vice President of Curatorial Affairs Doris Berger and Assistant Curator Ana Santiago, this rotation will also be exploring Varda’s time as a photographer as well as many other autobiographical elements that have contributed to the making of her films.
In February 2023, the museum will open several new exhibitions, which include galleries dedicated to the films Boyz N The Hood and Casablanca, as well as documentarian Lourdes Portillo, and the various collaborations between production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer. Organized by Research Assistants Esme Douglas and Manouchka Kelly Labouba, the Boyz N The Hood exhibition will be exploring director John Singleton’s 1991 movie’s portrayal of Black experience in Southern Los Angeles as well as its impact on popular culture. The Casablanca gallery will showcase objects belonging to the various branches of the original 1942 production, while also exploring the influx of European émigrés that lent their talents to aid in the making of the film, both from in front of as well as behind the camera.
The gallery devoted to Lourdes Portillo will highlight the life and career of the Mexican-born documentarian, visual artist, journalist, and activist, and the way in which the film director blended the traditional with experimental storytelling modes in her works. Also organized by Santiago, the last rotation of February is dedicated to longtime collaborators production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer who have brought different periods to life on the screen, from the 2012 Anna Karenina to the depiction of Winston Churchill’s war room in the 2017 film Darkest Hour.
Late spring 2023 will mark the museum’s first permanent exhibition with Hollywoodland. Organized by Associate Curator Dara Jaffe in collaboration with Associate Curator of Digital Presentations Gary Dauphin, this gallery will focus on chronicling the founding and founders of the Hollywood studio system. From its roots in the early 20th century until today, this gallery will illustrate a timeline of the developing film industry, showing how the birth of the American movie industry is in truth an immigrant story. At the end of this exhibition, visitors will have a deeper understanding of the history of Hollywood.
Also during this season, the museum will be receiving new objects and media selections from the extensive Academy collection as well as renovating its main public spheres. This Spring, the Inventing Worlds and Characters galleries will feature new works highlighting the animation of John and Faith Hubley, new cels from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, concept drawings by Ray Harryhausen for Jason and the Argonauts, and concept drawings by Georges Méliès for The Conquest of the Pole. In the fall, the Identity gallery will showcase costumes worn by Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun, Olivia Coleman in The Favourite, Tilda Swinton in Suspiria, and Richard Pryor in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. In spring 2023, new additions include costumes worn by Anna May Wong in Limehouse Blues, Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep, Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce, and Marlon Brando in Mutiny on the Bounty. The list of brand-new exciting additions goes on and on.
If you are excited to see these new additions to the emblematic Museum, you can order tickets in advance through online reservations on the Academy Museum’s website or mobile app. The price for the tickets is set at $25 for adults, $19 for seniors, and $15 for students. Admissions are free for visitors under 17 and for California residents who own an EBT card.