Amy Homma, who has served as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures‘ director and president since 2024, will henceforth oversee the Academy Collection — made up of some 52 million film-related items — as well, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Making Homma the director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Academy Collection — her new title — is part of an effort to better organizationally link all aspects of the Academy’s history and preservation efforts. It marks the first time that all collections, conservation, preservation, exhibitions and screening components of the Academy Foundation will be overseen by one individual.
Homma will work closely with Matt Severson, executive vp of the Academy Collection and Preservation, and the teams at the Academy Film Archive and the Margaret Herrick Library.
“Bringing our collections and museum teams together is a logical evolution of our preservation and conservation work,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement. “Amy Homma is a fantastic leader who, along with Matt Severson and his stellar collections teams, will greatly expand the reach of our Academy Collection — just as she has done with the Academy Museum.”
Homma tells THR, “With our library, archive and museum, the Academy is the world’s premier place to celebrate, preserve and learn about our cinematic history. I am honored to work with each of these incredibly talented teams and, alongside Matt, unite them under one common vision to bring these valuable resources to our global community.”
Adds Severson, “Through this alignment of our institution-wide preservation efforts and of the Academy Collection, we will have the opportunity to make film history more accessible to the next generation of filmmakers. I am so excited to welcome Amy and to strategically work to move this critical work forward.”
In related news, the Academy announced a host of new additions to its collection including the screen-used hero bicycle from 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; rare scripts and correspondence belonging to Orson Welles; tap shoes worn by James Cagney in 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy; costume design drawings by Edith Head for Kim Novak in 1958’s Vertigo; Dimitri Tiomkin’s handwritten music score and sheet music for the recorded title song of 1952’s High Noon (1952); behind-the-scenes photographs from the set of 1975’s Jaws; personal collections from Allison Anders, Arthur Dong, Sherry Lansing, Walter Mirisch and Freida Lee Mock; thelLife cast and registration mask for Tom Hanks that was used to create motion capture effects for 2004’s The Polar Express; the couture gown worn by Cicely Tyson to the 91st Oscars; costumes designed by Charles Lemaire and Mark Bridges; new restorations of 2004’s Mysterious Skin, 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and 1957’s Saint Joan; and three Oscar statuettes, cinematographer John Alcott’s for 1975’s Barry Lyndon, songwriter Ray Gilbert’s for 1946’s Song of the South and special effects artist Warren Newcombe’s for 1947’s Green Dolphin Street.
The Academy Collection has also added the Kobal Foundation Collection of Photograph Negatives, which consists of approximately 20,000 original negatives, including portraits and behind-the-scenes images by some of Hollywood’s greatest photographers. In addition, new acquisitions to the Academy’s core reference collection include more than 600 books, 2,600 magazines and 2,200 posters from 46 countries.
“The preservation of our global film history is a core focus of the Academy, and we are honored to add so many exciting items to our ever-growing Academy Collection,” Kramer said. “The collection serves as an important tool for research, scholarship, exhibitions and programs.”
From left, top: The bicycle from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, a photograph of Anna May Wong signed to singer Frances Chun, an invitation from Orson Welles to Paul Stewart to attend the wrap party for Citizen Kane and a behind-the-scenes photograph from Jaws.
From left, bottom: A still from Mysterious Skin, the drawing of Cicely Tyson’s Oscars gown and a still from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
