Academy Museum Goes Smart, Not Touristy, With First Exhibitions

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has announced its opening exhibitions. The first major show, set to open in late 2019, is a full retrospective of manga animator Hayao Miyazaki. It will be followed by “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1900–1970" in fall 2020. Both confirm that director Kerry Brougher is going for smart and eclectic rather than Industry self-promotion. (At top, an image from Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, 1988.)


Not that there won't be plenty of room for Hollywood. "Making of: The Wizard of Oz" will celebrate Dorothy and friends. It leads to the permanent collection installation, "Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies" (conceptual study below). The museum promises a global history of filmmaking, with a gallery devoted to the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès, and scholarship-driven displays on early women, black, and Asian filmmakers.


The 34-foot-high Hurd Gallery will be programmed with installations by contemporary artists and filmmakers. First up is the Tokyo collective teamLab's "Transcending Boundaries," described as a "site-specific, real-time, ever-changing environment that allows the viewer to engage directly with the artwork itself."