Film Academy’s Lorenza Muñoz Joins Amazon Studios as Senior Global Awards Executive (EXCLUSIVE)

Matt Donnelly
·2 min read

Amazon Studios has tapped Lorenza Muñoz as senior global awards executive, Variety has learned.

Muñoz joins the studio from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she led the internal member relations and awards department. In her new role, she will focus on implementing awards strategies on a global and international scale, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusivity.

Reporting to Debra Birnbaum, the director of awards at Amazon Studios, Lorenza will work across all Amazon original film and series content.

At AMPAS, Lorenza helped bring in the largest and most diverse member classes in the organization’s history. She also oversaw activities and initiatives for the Academy’s near 9,000 members, including Oscars submissions, rules for eligibility, Oscar-related events and voting throughout the organization.

Some of her notable initiatives included A2020, which doubled the number of women and people from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities in the membership — as well as programs like the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women, Academy Aperture 2025 and the “Academy Dialogues: It Starts With Us” series, which focuses on topics of gender, racial and ethnic equity. She departs following the release of the Academy’s game-changing new inclusion and representation standards.

Prior to the Academy, Lorenza served as press and policy deputy for Los Angeles County supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, and was a veteran of The Los Angeles Times, covering entertainment, arts, business, crime and politics in the 15 years there as a staff writer.

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