In the new role, Stewart will guide the vision of the Academy Museum and oversee all aspects of its operations.
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ Board of Trustees has announced that Jacqueline Stewart will become the institution’s Director and President.
Stewart replaces Bill Kramer, who last week was appointed as CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She will assume her new role on July 18.
Since 2020, Stewart has served as the museum’s chief artistic and programming officer, leading strategy and planning for the Academy Museum’s curatorial, educational and public programming initiatives, including exhibitions, screenings, symposia, publications, workshops, youth programmes and the Academy Museum Podcast.
Speaking about the appointment, Ted Sarandos, Chair of the Academy Museum’s Board of Trustees and Co-CEO of Netflix, said: “The Board warmly and unanimously agrees that Jacqueline Stewart is the ideal choice to lead the Academy Museum into the future. A strong and inspiring partner to Bill Kramer throughout the period leading up to our opening, she gave indispensable direction to the curatorial program that has been so widely admired. Her assumption of the role of Director and President is a testament to both the intellectual heft of the Academy Museum and its institutional strength.”
Bill Kramer added: “It has been a great privilege to work hand-in-hand with Jacqueline as we opened the Academy Museum. I am thrilled that we will continue to collaborate in our two new roles. I know the museum will thrive thanks to her rare combination of expertise, creativity, and proven leadership. Like movie fans everywhere, I am so thankful to have her guide the future of the Academy Museum.”
Jacqueline Stewart stated: “Our ambition in opening the Academy Museum was to give Los Angeles and the world an unprecedented institution for understanding and appreciating the history and culture of cinema, in all its artistic glory and all its power to influence and reflect society. I feel deeply honoured to have been chosen for this new role and look forward to working with our Board of Trustees, our COO and General Counsel Brendan Connell Jr., our wonderfully talented staff, and with Bill Kramer and the Academy, as we continue to advance our mission.”
Stewart’s work in expanding public understanding of cinema and bringing film history to life has included her award-winning book Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, a study of African Americans and silent cinema, and her co-editorship of L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, and William Greaves: Filmmaking as Mission. She is the host of Silent Sunday Nights on Turner Classic Movies and co-curated the video collection Pioneers of African American Cinema for Kino Lorber. A native of Chicago’s South Side, Stewart founded the South Side Home Movie Project in 2005 to preserve, digitize, and screen amateur footage documenting everyday life from the perspectives of South Side residents.
A passionate film archivist and advocate for film preservation, she is chair of the National Film Preservation Board, where she led the drafting of reports on diversity, equity, and inclusion on the National Film Registry and in the film archival profession, and has also served on the Boards of Chicago Film Archives, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
