The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study is one of three Los Angeles-area facilities of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

, located at 1313

Vine Street Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has be ...

in central

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. Precisely situated in the heart of Hollywood, the building site is endowed with terrific history of Hollywood. It is the oldest surviving structure in Hollywood that was designed specifically with television in mind. In addition to the 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theater, where numerous public events are presented throughout the year, the building houses several Academy departments, including the Academy Film Archive, the Science and Technology Council, and the Grants and Nicholl Fellowship programs.

History

Although the Academy Film Archive was not officially established until 1991, the Academy started storing film prints and archival papers soon after the first Oscars ceremony in 1929, when members began donating materials to the organization. In 1948, a committee of Academy members launched a campaign to acquire all past Oscar-winning and nominated–films, along with many others. In 1994, this officially became the rule at the Academy, with all films stored at the Archive. Originally located at the Margaret Herrick Library, the Archive moved to Vine Street in 2002 when the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study opened. The building was constructed in 1948 as a radio and television studio and is the oldest surviving studio building in Los Angeles. First called the Don Lee Mutual Broadcasting Building and originally dedicated on August 18, 1948, as studios for the Mutual- Don Lee Broadcasting System, it was owned by CBS and then by ABC, and it was used for taping series such as ''

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'', ''

The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show. Newly married couples compete against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created ...

'', and ''

Barney Miller ''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th Street in Greenwich Village (Lower Manhattan). The series was broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Janu ...

'', among others. After it was acquired by the Academy in 2000 and remodeled, the building was renamed in 2002 after

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

, a founding member of the Academy. The facility’s upgrades included constructing temperature-controlled storage spaces and a state-of-the-art fire suppression system. The renovations also included the addition of the 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theater, named after a visual effects pioneer, to accommodate public programming and screenings of Award-eligible films for Academy members. Additionally, the building houses the offices of several Academy departments, including those responsible for the Academy’s larger public programming efforts, the Student Academy Awards, the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship, and the Academy Gold internship program.

Present

Today, the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study is the home of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive, which holds over 230,000 items, making it one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world. The Archive maintains all Academy Award–winning films in the Best Picture and Documentary categories as well as many other Oscar-nominated films across categories. It also houses the personal collections of filmmakers such as Tacita Dean,

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

, Barbara Hammer,

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

Penelope Spheeris Penelope Spheeris (born December 2, 1945) is an American film director, film producer, producer, and screenwriter. She has directed both documentary film, documentary and scripted films. Her best-known works include the trilogy titled ''The Decl ...

George Stevens George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''A Place in the Sun (1951 film), A Place in the Sun'' (1951) ...

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent film, independent auteur. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures. His ...

, and

Fred Zinnemann Alfred Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an American film director and producer. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thriller film, thrillers, western (genre), westerns, film ...

. As one of the Academy’s research and preservation arms, the Pickford also plays an important role in the pre-production of every Academy Awards ceremony.

References

External links

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
{{coord, 34.094819, -118.327257, display=t, type:landmark Cinema museums in California Museums in Los Angeles Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Mary Pickford Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles Cinema of Southern California 2002 establishments in California 2002 establishments in the United States