Stories of Cinema: the Academy Museum announces its virtual programming lineup

“The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures won’t open until Sept. 30, but you can ‘visit’ as soon as April. The museum held an online media preview Wednesday, during which it announced that virtual programming will start on its website April 22.

The event included a virtual tour of the museum’s galleries, seen in renderings and led by museum trustee Laura Dern. Prerecorded comments were from academy members including Guillermo del Toro, Spike Lee and Rita Moreno — all of whom are highlighted in the museum’s exhibitions — as well as museum board vice chair Miky Lee. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, who designed the 300,000-square-foot, $482-million museum, participated in the preview as did Kulapat Yantrasast, whose Culver City-based WHY Architecture designed the gallery interiors.

When it opens, ‘Stories of Cinema’ will address the evolution of filmmaking across three floors of the museum, with deep dives into different facets, including directing, screenwriting, cinematography, sound design, costume design, hair and makeup, and visual and special effects. Conceptual exhibits will focus on topics such as sci-fi/fantasy characters and worlds. The museum will refresh gallery content every eight to 12 months, Kramer said, and it will rotate in guest curators from the industry. The first three will be filmmakers Lee and Pedro Almodóvar and Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir […]”

-Deborah Vankin