Motion Picture Arts

Thomas Horn, 14, was standing in the middle of a cocktail party populated with adults when director Brett Ratner walked over to the teenager to offer him a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Days before the late December release of "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" - in which Horn stars as Oskar Schell, a boy struggling to come to grips with the loss of his father, played by Tom Hanks, in the Sept. 11 attacks - he and other cast members were being feted in the lobby of a building that houses the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Archive.

Fay Kanin, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the 1958 Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy "Teacher's Pet" and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died Wednesday. She was 95. In a writing career that spanned more than four decades, Kanin penned screenplays for movies such as the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor romantic drama "Rhapsody" and television specials such as "Tell Me Where It Hurts," for which she won two Emmy Awards in 1974. She won another Emmy in 1979 for producing "Friendly Fire," a critically acclaimed Carol Burnett TV movie based on the true story of an American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. Kanin served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983, and was its second female president after actress Bette Davis.

Dawn Hudson, the chief executive who was hired last year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and promised to "chart the new path" for the 84-year-old institution that awards the Oscars, has stirred up enough controversy within the organization that some leaders are talking about replacing her. The academy's board of governors held a closed-door session Dec. 6 to discuss the job performance of Hudson. At least one member raised the possibility of buying out the remainder of her three-year contract, according to half a dozen academy insiders familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because board deliberations are supposed to be confidential and because some feared reprisals.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition issued an open letter Tuesday to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressing their unhappiness that the late "Real Women Have Curves" actress Lupe Ontiveros was not included in the telecast's "In Memoriam" segment. Ontiveros died in July. She was 69. The letter explains that Ontiveros was not a member of the academy, which was the reason for her omission, but it adds that the actress, sponsored by actors Miguel Sandoval and Edward James Olmos, was denied membership in the organization when she applied.  IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Oscars 2013:   Winner list   |   Red carpet   |   Highlights "It is astonishing that an actress of Ontiveros' caliber and experience was denied membership to the Academy," said the letter.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 176 new members on Friday, including actors Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Kerry Washington; directors Terrence Malick and Asghar Farhadi; producers Grant Heslov and Letty Aronson; and writers Stephen King and Annie Mumolo. Among the new invitees are some high-profile minorities, including actors Demián Bichir, Octavia Spencer and Michelle Yeoh, "Think Like a Man" producer Will Packer and Chinese director Wong Kar Wai. Overall the list includes about 14% nonwhites, academy leaders say, with 30% of the invitees female.

Recently on this page we observed that despite the nomination of two black women for acting Oscars this year, leading roles and influence in the entertainment industry continue to be largely out of reach for African Americans. Now, a months-long investigation by The Times into the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes on who should receive Oscars, reveals that the organization is overwhelmingly white and male. We're not surprised, and neither are Academy officials.

Fay Kanin, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the 1958 Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy "Teacher's Pet" and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, died Wednesday. She was 95. In a writing career that spanned more than four decades, Kanin penned screenplays for movies such as the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor romantic drama "Rhapsody" and television specials such as "Tell Me Where It Hurts," for which she won two Emmy Awards in 1974. She won another Emmy in 1979 for producing "Friendly Fire," a critically acclaimed Carol Burnett TV movie based on the true story of an American soldier killed in the Vietnam War. Kanin served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983, and was its second female president after actress Bette Davis.

One of the longest streaks in television history ... will continue. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC television network said Thursday that they had extended their licensing agreement by six years ? through 2020. The announcement comes just days before this weekend's 83rd annual Oscar gala on the network, and the new agreement keeps the Academy Awards telecast a fixture on ABC. "This contract ensures that the Oscar show will be an ABC tradition for 45 consecutive years," Tom Sherak, the academy's president, said in a prepared statement.

James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey and pioneering makeup artist Dick Smith will be honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in November with Governors Awards. Jones and Smith will receive Honorary Awards, while Winfrey will be presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The Honorary Award is presented for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the academy.

Apparently Sophia Loren didn't get the memo that she is a septuagenarian and a grandmother because at 76 she is as stunning as when she first arrived in Hollywood more than 50 years ago. Sitting on a comfy sofa in the lobby of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Loren remains the epitome of glamour and graciousness. Dressed in a red pantsuit with red boots, Loren is svelte with barely a line on her face. Her voice is as distinctively earthy, her accent as thickly Italian as ever — she even apologizes when she can only think of a certain word in her native tongue.

So where's Clint Eastwood when you need him? Sure, he hijacked Mitt Romney's convention with his bizarre soliloquy, a man and his chair. But the moment was spontaneous, surprising and captivating in the can't-turn-away fashion of an impending train wreck. Most of Sunday night's interminable Oscars ceremony consisted of seriously unfunny jokes, painful repartee and a parade of otherwise talented actors forced to read from stilted scripts like benumbed captives in a hostage video.

Now that the dust has settled and cold reality has replaced airy speculation, it's clearer than ever that as far as the 2013 best picture Oscar was concerned, Hollywood's directors gave and took away. Not content with being the powers on the set, the 300-some members of the director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences demonstrated power of another kind. By setting into motion what has come to be known as the Year of the Snub, they left two key directors off of their nominations list and sealed the fates of both pictures involved, elevating one and all but burying the other.

The members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are always happy to acknowledge big action movies, franchise films and mega-hits - especially if there's a possibility they'll boost the ratings of the Oscars telecast and bring in the young folks. This year's producers tapped comic hipster and "Family Guy" Seth MacFarlane to host Sunday's ceremony. The super-cool cast of the "The Avengers" was asked to reassemble for the show, and James Bond will be feted for turning 50 years young.

Unlike last year, people hoping to jazz up their Academy Awards viewing parties this weekend with an oversized statuette resembling Oscar are now out of luck. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has settled a lawsuit it brought against an Edwardsville, Ill.-based events rental company for copyright infringement stemming from the alleged renting and selling of eight-foot statues that looked like the Oscar statuettes. The case against TheEventLine.com and its president, Robert Hollingsworth, was settled late last year and dismissed Nov. 19. In a lawsuit filed March 9 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, the Academy had alleged that Hollingsworth continued to market, sell and rent the eight-foot statues after he'd been notified of the alleged infringement in a letter sent in March 2011.

Chicago real estate developer Dwight Cleveland has donated over 1,000 vintage movies posters from his collection to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The posters, documenting the studio era of "B" movie filmmaking from the first half of the 20th century, feature a variety of genres including westerns ("The Revenge Rider" and "Heart of the Golden West"), war films ("Friendly Enemies" and "Somewhere in France") and musicals ("Breakfast in Hollywood" and "Girl From Rio")

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday afternoon that it will split costume designers out of the broader designers branch and into their own branch.The academy's Board of Governors also noted that two new governors will soon join Jeffrey Kurland, who will transfer to newly created branch. "History was made at the Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday night with the formation of a Costume Designers Branch," said Kurland in a release. "Costume designers have waited a long time for recognition with branch status.

A Topanga compound built in the early 1930s by Oscar-winning film director Frank Lloyd has sold for $3.85 million. The nine-acre property includes the original main house, a carriage house and a guesthouse. The main house features seven wood-burning fireplaces, a billiards room, a library and a walk-in refrigerator. There are four bedrooms, five bathrooms and about 4,900 square feet of living space. Lloyd, who died at 74 in 1960, was a founder and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Don't worry if you're one of the 100 or so Academy Award nominees who will go home empty-handed Sunday night. On Tuesday, you'll be able to buy yourself an Oscar. A record 15 Oscar statuettes will be sold to the highest bidders during an online and telephone sale conducted by a Brentwood auction house. The sale of the statuettes, which include those awarded for such classics as "Citizen Kane," "How Green Was My Valley" and "Wuthering Heights," is expected to generate as much as $4 million in bids, according to auctioneer Nate D. Sanders.

For the first time in 40 years, the host of the Academy Awards also will announce the nominees. Seth MacFarlane, tapped in October as the emcee for the 85th annual Oscars, will help read the nominations early Thursday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday. The comedian behind "Family Guy" and "Ted" is the only person to host the awards telecast and announce the nominations besides Charlton Heston, who did both in 1972. Joining MacFarlane in reading the nominations at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday will be Emma Stone, who stars in the upcoming "Gangster Squad.

Something like a glammed-up re-imagining of the United Nations, year-in, year-out the foreign-language film category at the Oscars is a home to diplomacy, drama, intrigue and heartbreak. And that's just the process to secure a nomination and then the award, to say nothing of the actual storytelling portrayed on-screen. The recently announced shortlist of nine films vying for the nomination in the category did nevertheless contain the two presumed front-runners, the Austrian awards-magnet "Amour" and France's international box office sensation "The Intouchables.