Academy and Oscar News: Bruce Davis Steps Down In 2011, Doc Series News

In Academy and Oscar News, Bruce Davis, the Executive Director of The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is stepping down from his post July of 2011, Variety reports. Davis has been at AMPAS since 1981, and held that post since 1989, or for 21 years.

Over at Deadline.com, Nikki Finke, long-time observer of the Oscar business, lays out several heavy-duty reasons why Davis is leaving:

..he (Davis) couldn't get an Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures off the ground, with AMPAS spending tens of millions of dollars to buy the property for the proposed 8-acre campus without first raising the necessary funding and now having nothing to show for the money because the project is postponed indefinitely. He also allowed AMPAS to lag behind in technology, which means administrators will have to start from ground zero to ensure Academy voters can receive the films in competition on their computers and vote online if the 2012 Oscars are moved up to January or early February as the Board of Governors is considering. He also presided over a smugly arrogant organization shrouded in secrecy...

There's no report of a person to take his place. But stay close to Zennie62.com for news on who that may be as we approach 2011.

Academy's Documentary Screening Series Presses On

The Academy's Doc Series continues. The Academy reports, the 2009 Academy Awards nominees The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner and The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers will screen as the next installment in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 29th annual “Contemporary Documentaries” series on Wednesday, October 20, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

AMPAS says that admission to all screenings in the series is free.

Oscar Foreign Language Films - 65 In All

There will be films representing 65 countries and all competing for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. Over the next two months, the list will be paired down considerably via screenings by the Oscar Foreign Language Film Committee, until a list of potential nominees is selected. The nominees will be named Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Visit Zennie62.com for more details.

Written by
Zennie Abraham