Academy Renews CEO Dawn Hudson’s Contract Through June 2020

Kristopher Tapley and Gene Maddaus

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to renew CEO Dawn Hudson’s contract through June 2020.

The vote was held at the board’s regularly scheduled March 28 meeting, which also yielded a number of rule changes for the annual Oscars competition.

“We are confident in Dawn’s leadership of the Academy, and fully support her as she leads a strong and dedicated team of more than 350 into our ninth decade,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an email to Academy members sent Monday afternoon.

But Hudson, who earns $705,000 a year in salary and other compensation, faced stiffer opposition on the Academy Board of Governors than she has in the past, according to Academy sources.

The email further noted that the board is “excited that [Hudson] will continue the Academy’s goals of globalization and inclusion, guide us towards the successful opening of an unprecedented movie museum, and lead us toward next year’s 90th Oscars.”

Hudson was brought on in 2011 to succeed Bruce Davis, who had served as the Academy’s executive director for 21 years. Her original contract was renewed for three years in 2014.

She has presided over one of the most tumultuous periods in the Academy’s history. Last year, the Academy took dramatic steps to diversify its ranks in response to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

She also helmed the institution as it endured the fallout from this year’s Oscars envelope gaffe. Variety has reported that Hudson and communications director Teni Melidonian pushed for a quicker response to the gaffe, but that she clashed with Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who was satisfied to let PricewaterhouseCoopers’ statement stand on its own.

Hudson has also overseen the development of the Academy Movie Museum, which is under construction at Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. The project was recently delayed and is now set to open in the spring of 2019.

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