Whoopi Goldberg Faces Challenge From Richard Dreyfuss, Rita Wilson in Oscars’ Board of Governors Election

Whoopi Goldberg will be facing 18 other actors who want her seat on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, the Academy revealed to its members on Friday.

The Academy posted the list of candidates for the board from all 17 of its branches, with incumbent Actors Branch governor Goldberg going up against a slate of challengers that includes past governor Ed Begley Jr., as well as Richard Dreyfuss, James and Stacy Keach, Tim Matheson, Joe Pantoliano, Lou Diamond Phillips and Rita Wilson, whose husband, Tom Hanks, served on the board for many years.

Other branches whose contenders hit double digits included Cinematographers (12), Directors (13), Executives (12), Producers (16), Sound (10) and Visual Effects (10).

But the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch, in which incumbent Kathryn Blondell was ineligible to run again, has only a single candidate, Linda Flowers.

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Blondell, film editor David Tronick and casting director Lora Kennedy could not run for re-election because of term limits that restrict governors to three consecutive three-year terms. Tronick had served the full nine years, while Blondell and Kennedy had each served seven years, beginning with special one-year terms that began in 2013. But because a new three-year term would place them at 10 years, over the limit, they weren’t eligible to run.

Of the 14 governors who were eligible for re-election, only Albert Berger from the Producers Branch declined to run. Berger, who would have been running for his third term, told TheWrap that he supports a six-year term limit for governors, which would bring the board in line with other Academy committees.

A number of former governors are in the running to return to the board, including Michael Mann and Reginald Hudlin in the Directors Branch, Mark Mangini in the Sound Branch and Jon Bloom in the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch.

Other contenders include cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, directors Scott Cooper, Ava DuVernay, Kasi Lemmons, Brett Ratner and Jason Reitman, documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, executives Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, Mike Medavoy and Patrick Wachsberger, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, producers Jason Blum and Irwin Winkler and writers Gregory Nava, John Ridley and Howard A. Rodman.

Voting will take place next week, beginning on June 1 and ending June 5. A single round of voting, which will use the preferential system of counting to determine each branch’s consensus favorite, will be used. In past years, the governors election had used the first round to narrow the field to four, and a second round to pick the winner. Historically, incumbents have won re-election to the AMPAS Board of Governors about 75% of the time.

Also Read: Oscars' Big Rule Changes: First-Run Streaming Films Now Eligible, Sound Categories Merged

Here is the complete list of candidates:

Actors
Michael Lee Aday
Ed Begley, Jr.
Robert Carradine
Nicolas Coster
Colman Domingo
Richard Dreyfuss
Spencer Garrett
Bruce Glover
Whoopi Goldberg – incumbent
James Keach
Stacy Keach
Peter Wong
Jodi Long
Tim Matheson
Joe Pantoliano
Lou Diamond Phillips
Andrea Riseborough
Andrew Stevens
Rita Wilson

Casting Directors
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane

Cinematographers
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Richard P. Crudo
Svetlana Cvetko
Steven Fierberg
Michael Goi
Janusz Kaminski
Newton Thomas Sigel
Eric Steelberg
Kees Van Oostrum
Amelia Vincent
Roy Wagner
Mandy Walker – incumbent

Costume Designers
Molly Maginnis
Judianna Makovsky
Isis Mussenden – incumbent
Rita Ryack

Directors
Niki Caro
Scott Cooper
Ava DuVernay
Reginald Hudlin
Kasi Lemmons
Michael Mann
Philippe Mora
Kimberly Peirce – incumbent
Brett Ratner
Peyton Reed
Jason Reitman
Frances-Anne Solomon
Lewis Teague

Documentary
Kate Amend – incumbent
Geralyn Dreyfous
Karen Goodman
Lauren Greenfield
Tom Neff

Executives
Pam Abdy
Victoria Alonso
Michael W. Barker
Thomas Bernard
Mark C. Canton
Erica Huggins
David Linde – incumbent
Mike Medavoy
James W. Morris
Gianni Nunnari
Stephen Strick
Patrick Wachsberger

Film Editors
Mark Helfrich
Michael Jablow
Nancy Richardson
Stephen Rivkin
David Rosenbloom
Paul Seydor
Terilyn A. Shropshire

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Linda Flowers

Marketing and Public Relations
Stephen D. Bruno
Kevin Goetz
Barry Dale Johnson
Michael Kaplan
Christina Kounelias – incumbent
Robert A. Levine
Michele Robertson

Music
Charles Bernstein – incumbent
Paul Chihara
George S. Clinton
John C. Debney
Sharon Farber
William Goldstein
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
Emilio Kauderer
Carole Bayer Sager

Producers
Khadija Alami
Jason Blum
Lawrence David Foldes
Jennifer Fox
Lynette Howell Taylor
Steven-Charles Jaffe
Robert Lantos
Lori McCreary
Chris Moore
Michael Peyster
Michael S. Phillips
Peter Samuelson
Michael Shamberg
Jeffrey Sharp
Richard W. Stevenson
Irwin Winkler

Production Design
Marcia Hinds
Geoffrey A. Kirkland
John A. Kuri
Carolyn A. Loucks
John Muto
Rusty Smith
Melissa Stewart
Wynn P. Thomas – incumbent
Thomas A. Walsh

Short Films and Feature Animation
Jon Bloom
Edwin Catmull
Ron Diamond
Chris Donahue
Raul Garcia
Matthew Gross
Tom Sito – incumbent
Erik Smitt
Chris Tashima

Sound
Bobbi Banks
Teri E. Dorman – incumbent
Nicholas Eliopoulos
Scott Gershin
Mark Mangini
F. Hudson Miller
Victoria Rose Sampson
Mark P. Stoeckinger
Bruce Tanis
Randy Thom

Visual Effects
Robert Blalack
Rob Bredow
Brooke Breton
Richard Edlund – incumbent
Jonathan Erland
Jeffrey M. Kleiser
Jeffrey A. Okun
Helena Packer
Joshua Pines
Theresa Ellis Rygiel
Rick Sayre

Writers
Carl A. Gottlieb
Larry Karaszewski – incumbent
Gregory Nava
John Ridley
Howard A. Rodman

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