New photos from the Academy Museum’s galleries, from ‘Oz’ to ‘Midsommar’
The prosthetic suit, center, worn by actor Doug Jones as the Amphibian Man in the 2018 Oscar-winning film, “The Shape of Water,” directed by Guillermo del Toro. The costume is part of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ inaugural exhibition, “Stories of Cinema.”
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures doesn’t open to the public until Sept. 30, but Tom Hanks, Anna Kendrick, “Parasite” producer Miky Lee, architect Renzo Piano and others welcomed media on Tuesday to a peek of the fully installed galleries, and Times photographer Jay L. Clendenin was on hand to capture the scene.
Anna Kendrick spoke at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opening press conference.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The event began in the museum’s 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater, the belly of Piano’s futuristic, glass-domed sphere building. Just don’t call the structure the “Death Star,” as it’s been nicknamed, Piano insisted.
“It’s not a Death Star,” he said. “Call it a dirigible, that’s fine — this place was an airfield less than one century ago.” Or, he added, call it “a soap bubble. But this soap bubble will never blow up. It’s very well done, very well built.”
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R2-D2, from the “Star Wars” franchise, on view as part of the “Stories of Cinema” exhibition.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The museum’s collection of about 8,000 items includes Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” H.R. Giger’s creature headpiece from “Alien” and the typewriter on which Alfred Hitchcock wrote “Psycho.” But Hanks, a museum trustee who co-led fundraising efforts with Annette Bening and Bob Iger, said his favorite gallery was one filled with old magic lanterns that hundreds of years ago projected images via candlelight. It may not be as glamorous as seeing “Star Wars” droid R2-D2, also on view in the museum, but the lanterns illustrate the power of storytelling, he said.
“It made people like all of us want to go inside that dark room and be transported to another place,” he said of the gallery. “That’s what motion pictures do.”
Other cities have film museums, Hanks added. But “this museum has got to be the Parthenon of such places.”
As part of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures core exhibition, “Stories of Cinema,” director Spike Lee is showcasing objects from his personal collection, which illuminate his creative process and inspirations, including film, music, art and sports.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
An installation about Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar’s 40-year career includes posters from his movies in addition to a video installation that the filmmaker created exploring themes of family, bodies, guilt and pain, mothers, musicals and religious education.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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A group photo following an inaugural press conference for the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures included BACK ROW (L to R): Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President David Rubin, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures COO Brendan Connell, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Director and President Bill Kramer, Jr. FRONT ROW (L-R); Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Chief Artistic and Programming Officer Jacqueline Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Pictures and museum trustee Jim Gianopulos, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Dawn Hudson, actress Anna Kendrick, Academy Museum Board of Trustees Vice-Chair Miky Lee.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
In the “Art of Moviemaking” gallery, Dorothy’s iconic ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The costume worn by actor Taron Egerton, as Elton John, in the 2019 film “Rocketman.” It’s part of the museum’s “Identity” gallery.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
The miniature model of the Aries-1B lunar landing shuttle from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The dress worn by actress Florence Pugh in the 2019 horror film “Midsommar.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A visitor watches a scene from a Cheech and Chong film inside the Spielberg Family Gallery, part of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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A visitor gets a closeup of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Forty costumes are in the “Identity” gallery along with costume design sketches.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The Terminator (T-800) animatronic designed by John Rosengrant and Mark “Crash” McCreery (Stan Winston Studio) for 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Costume design sketches in the museum’s “Identity” gallery.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A behind-the-scenes look at the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A visitor watches a scene from Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar’s “Volver.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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A space suit worn in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A visitor walks through the Spielberg Family Gallery, which is just off the lobby of the new museum.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
A Polaroid of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, in costume, from the 1980 John Landis-directed film “The Blues Brothers.”
Deborah Vankin is an arts and culture writer for the Los Angeles Times. In what’s never a desk job, she has live-blogged her journey across Los Angeles with the L.A. County Museum of Art’s “big rock,” scaled downtown mural scaffolding with street artist Shepard Fairey, navigated the 101 freeway tracking the 1984 Olympic mural restorations and ridden Doug Aitken’s art train through the Barstow desert. Her award-winning interviews and profiles unearth the trends, issues and personalities in L.A.’s arts scene. Her work as a writer and editor has also appeared in Variety, LA Weekly and the New York Times, among other places. Originally from Philadelphia, she’s the author of the graphic novel “Poseurs.”
Jay L. Clendenin was a Los Angeles Times staff photographer from 2007-24. He primarily covered the entertainment industry, with a focus on portraiture.
