Oscars: Academy’s Board of Governors elections begin; here’s who’s running
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), who put on the Oscars, have revealed the actors, writers, sound designers and more that are in the running for elected seats in their specific branches. Voting begins on June 1 and ends on June 5.
Candidates run for three-year terms with a maximum of three terms with branch having three seats on its board. Due to the staggering of terms, only one of those seats is open each year.
Incumbent Whoopi Goldberg, an Oscar winner and previous Oscar host, will go up against Colman Domingo (If Beale Street Could Talk), Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl), Rita Wilson (It’s Complicated) and more for open seat in the Acting branch. Wilson recently recovered from COVID-19 in Australia with her Oscar-winning husband Tom Hanks, a former representative of the actor’s branch.
The Director’s branch, which doesn’t have an incumbent, is going to be a tough fight with high profile names like Ava DuVernay (Selma), Kasi Lemmons (Harriet), Niki Caro (Mulan) running alongside previous Best Director nominees Michael Mann (The Insider) and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air).
The candidates were posted on the Academy members portal on Friday afternoon. Here is the full list of who is running for a spot on each board, by branch.
UPDATE: this list has been updated since publication yesterday and includes director and producer Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual harassment or misconduct in 2017 and resigned as the Oscars’ producer for the 2012 ceremony after an interview with radio host Howard Stern surfaced where he said “rehearsal is for fags.”
Actors
Michael Lee Aday
Ed Begley, Jr
Robert Carradine
Nicolas Coster
Colman Domingo
Richard Dreyfuss
Spencer Garrett
Bruce Glover
Whoopi Goldberg (incumbent)
James Keach
Stacy Keach
Peter Kwong
Jodi Long
Tim Matheson
Joe Pantoliano
Lou Diamond Phillips
Andrea Riseborough
Andrew Stevens
Rita Wilson
Casting Directors
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane
Cinematographers
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Richard P Crudo
Svetlana Cvetko
Steven Fierberg
Michael Goi
Janusz Kaminski
Newton Thomas Sigel
Eric Steelberg
Kees Van Oostrum
Amelia Vincent
Roy Wagner
Mandy Walker (incumbent)
Costume Designers
Molly Maginnis
Judianna Makovsky
Isis Mussenden (incumbent)
Rita Ryack
Directors
Niki Caro
Scott Cooper
Ava DuVernay
Reginald Hudlin
Kasi Lemmons
Michael Mann
Philippe Mora
Kimberly Peirce (incumbent)
Brett Ratner
Peyton Reed
Jason Reitman
Frances-Anne Solomon
Lewis Teague
Documentary
Kate Amend*
Geralyn Dreyfous
Karen Goodman
Lauren Greenfield
Tom Neff
Executives
Pam Abdy
Victoria Alonso
Michael W Barker
Thomas Bernard
Mark C Canton
Erica Huggins
David Linde (incumbent)
Mike Medavoy
James W Morris
Gianni Nunnari
Stephen Strick
Patrick Wachsberger
Film Editors
Mark Helfrich
Michael Jablow
Nancy Richardson
Stephen Rivkin
David Rosenbloom
Paul Seydor
Terilyn A Shropshire
Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Linda Flowers
Marketing and Public Relations
Stephen D Bruno
Kevin Goetz
Barry Dale Johnson
Michael Kaplan
Christina Kounelias (incumbent)
Robert A Levine
Michele Robertson
Music
Charles Bernstein (incumbent)
Paul Chihara
George S Clinton
John C Debney
Sharon Farber
William Goldstein
Jan A P Kaczmarek
Emilio Kauderer
Carole Bayer Sager
Producers
Khadija Alami
Jason Blum
Lawrence David Foldes
Jennifer Fox
Lynette Howell Taylor
Steven-Charles Jaffe
Robert Lantos
Lori McCreary
Chris Moore
Michael Peyser
Michael S Phillips
Peter Samuelson
Michael Shamberg
Jeffrey Sharp
Richard W Stevenson
Irwin Winkler
Production Design
Marcia Hinds
Geoffrey A Kirkland
John A Kuri
Carolyn A Loucks
John Muto
Rusty Smith
Melissa Stewart
Wynn P Thomas (incumbent)
Thomas A Walsh
Short Films and Feature Animation
Jon Bloom
Edwin Catmull
Ron Diamond
Chris Donahue
Raul Garcia
Matthew Gross
Tom Sito (incumbent)
Erik Smitt
Chris Tashima
Sound
Bobbi Banks
Teri E Dorman (incumbent)
Nicholas Eliopoulos
Scott Gershin
Mark Mangini
F Hudson Miller
Victoria Rose Sampson
Mark P Stoeckinger
Bruce Tanis
Randy Thom
Visual Effects
Robert Blalack
Rob Bredow
Brooke Breton
Richard Edlund (incumbent)
Jonathan Erland
Jeffrey M Kleiser
Jeffrey A Okun
Helena Packer
Joshua Pines
Theresa Ellis Rygiel
Rick Sayre
Writers
Carl A Gottlieb
Larry Karaszewski (incumbent)
Gregory Nava
John Ridley
Howard A Rodman
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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