Nonprofit Profile | I’d Like to Thank the Academy …
One hundred nine years ago today, Irving Thalberg was born in Brooklyn. In his very brief tenure as a film producer — he died at age 37 — Thalberg sparkled, copping Academy Awards for three films and, according to Wikipedia, earning a reputation for "his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff, and make very profitable films."
If Thalberg’s name sounds familiar to you, it’s almost certainly because it is on the prize awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to producers in recognition of their lifetime bodies of work. AMPAS is the "Academy" of the Academy Awards, and so its most visible effort is the annual presentation of the Oscars. Such an orgy of shameless self-congratulation and excess seems incongruent with the notion of a nonprofit mission, but no one seems to be complaining. It’s worth noting, though, that the Academy also counts among its charges
to advance the arts and sciences of motion pictures; foster cooperation among creative leaders for cultural, educational and technological progress; recognize outstanding achievements; cooperate on technical research and improvement of methods and equipment; provide a common forum and meeting ground for various branches and crafts; represent the viewpoint of actual creators of the motion picture; and foster educational activities between the professional community and the public-at-large.
Those lofty ideals, of course, may be hard to reconcile now that the summer movie season is underway and mindless sequels and mega-budget comic-book movies lay waste to the more thoughtful, insightful fare that says more about the human condition. I’ll let you know what I think after I see Iron Man. And, uh, Indy. | 501(c)
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