Bill Mechanic’s Guide To Overhaul So Movie Academy Can Fire On All Cylinders – Guest Column

deadline.com:

Editors Note: Bill Mechanic is chairman and CEO of Pandemonium Films and a former top executive at Paramount, Disney and chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment when that studio generated Titanic, X-Men, Independence Day and Braveheart.

He is also a former producer of the Oscars and Oscar-nominated films like Hacksaw Ridge and Coraline, and was a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors before resigning in 2018.

He weighs in on that body’s upcoming elections.A few years ago now (amazing how time flies during a pandemic), I resigned as a governor from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for two reasons: 1) there were factions on the Board of Governors who wanted everything to be status quo in spite of evidence of mismanagement as well as some foreboding changes coming to the industry; and 2) I thought a loud and clear resignation might get the silenced majority of members to speak out and force the changes.

Wrong. Bad has become worse. The machine that was beginning to break down, is now broken.Michael Cieply’s recent column about this being a telling moment for AMPAS in some ways is too polite.