One Step Closer to Museum of Motion Pictures

9th November 2007

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Academy Museum of Motion Pictures moved one step closer to reality with the announcement today that French architecture firm Atelier Christian de Portzamparc will design the project.

Awarded the Pritzker Prize -- architecture's version of the Oscar -- 13 years ago, De Portzamparc has designed the Cité de la Musique and Café Beauborg in Paris, as well as the French Embassy in Berlin and the LVMH Tower in New York City.

The academy's board of governors approved the selection based on the recommendations of an architecture subcommittee whose members include Steven Spielberg, Curtis Hanson, producer Kathleen Kennedy and production designer Jeannine Oppewall.

It would be the world's largest and most ambitious museum dedicated to the history of film and the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says.

"We did it!" said academy President Sid Ganis. "At least we did this part of it. We have been moving on this for four years now, and we have been inching toward the dream. Now we took a big leap toward the dream."

Ganis sad he saw the museum becoming a major tourist attraction in Los Angeles, which has seen some notable buildings built in recent decades, including the Getty Centre and Disney Hall to house the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As for now, there are no formal plans designed for the museum campus, which will span 3.24-hectare in the heart of Hollywood, several buildings and open space areas and will be located next to the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, between Vine Street and Cahuenga Boulevard, and De Longpre and Fountain avenues.

Fundraising for the project begins next year. "It's a big chunk of dough," said Ganis, who declined to reveal actually how big a chunk. "It's an extremely ambitious undertaking."

Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2009; Ganis hopes the ribbon will be cut in 2012. "It's what the academy should be doing -- show the world what the art of film has been, what film is about, what the academy is about and how film has influenced us culturally."


Sources; Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts - Press Release, La Times,