In The Financial Details, New Reality And A Little Turmoil At The Film Academy
deadline.comThe big picture was clear enough in the fiscal 2022 financial report released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last Tuesday: Income down, expenses up, rough going overall in a tough financial climate.
But the finer points take a little digging, both in and around the 39-page report. On closer inspection, and with some help from people who know their way around the numbers—Academy officials, for their part, have declined comment—an observer sees signs of turmoil, and the outlines of a profound transition from a simple, Oscar-granting institution to a complicated cultural enterprise fronted by an expensive movie museum.
As for turmoil, there clearly was some around a $12.3 million “loss on asset disposal” recorded on Page 5 of the report. Only marginally helpful, a corresponding footnote said the amount represented “exhibit development costs” for property, equipment and building improvements that, it was determined, “would not be utilized in the museum.” But according those people who know their way around, the write-off was entangled with the departure of Kerry Brougher as director of the Academy Museum in August of 2019, and the subsequent hiring of Bill Kramer—now chief executive of the Academy itself—to fill his post.
A fair amount of the write-off resulted from false starts on a number of proposed projects between 2016 and 2019, as costly consultants from around the world wrestled with the challenge of building concrete exhibits around a medium as ephemeral as film.
Read more on deadline.com
