Amy Homma appointed new director and president of Academy Museum

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a series of strategic executive promotions as part of an organisation-wide effort to unite teams.

Amy Homma has been appointed Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by the Board of Trustees of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Academy Foundation Board of Governors. Homma will lead the strategic creative vision of the Academy Museum. She succeeds film scholar and TCM host Jacqueline Stewart, who is returning to her faculty position at the University of Chicago. Homma will report to the museum’s Board of Trustees and Academy CEO Bill Kramer.

Homma has been with the Academy Museum for five years and is currently the museum’s Chief Audience Officer. She has a deep background in museum practice and has made significant strides in enhancing and evolving the Academy Museum’s public profile through extensive and dynamic programming and content. She has successfully led the museum’s Film Programs, Education and Public Engagement, Community and Impact, and Digital Content teams, and she has significantly grown relationships between the Academy Museum, Academy members and the broader film community.

She previously served as the Academy Museum’s Vice President of Education and Public Engagement, during which time she developed a team to oversee the museum’s K-12 programming and public programs, which included lectures, symposia, panels, in-gallery talks and online programming. Prior to her time at the Academy Museum, Homma was a leader at the Smithsonian Institution as the Acting Deputy Director of the Arts & Industries Building and Director of Digital Learning at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

After nearly four years at the Academy Museum, Stewart is returning to the University of Chicago to resume her scholarship, writing and teaching. One of the world’s foremost scholars and public educators on cinema, she was honored just as the museum opened in 2021 as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Her immense contributions to the Academy Museum are lasting, including making new galleries bilingual, initiating the museum’s first strategic planning process, and the opening of many spectacular exhibitions, including Shifting Perspectives: Vertical Cinema and Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971.

Jennifer Davidson has been promoted to the newly created role of Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, effective June 1. In this expanded role, she will oversee marketing and audience development, communications, digital/social and creative brand strategy for all arms of the Academy, including the Academy Foundation, Academy Museum and the Oscars®.

Davidson has served as Chief Communications Officer since December 2021. Before the Academy, Davidson was Executive Vice President for Babygrande PR, creating and implementing strategic positioning, branding objectives, program publicity and corporate and business media outreach for a list of clients including ITV America and Wheelhouse Entertainment, among many others. Prior to that time, Davidson served as Vice President, Media Relations at Sony Pictures Television, overseeing the studio’s domestic publicity for all series, pilots and awards campaign strategy.

Jenny Galante has been promoted to the newly created role of Chief Revenue Officer, effective June 1. In this role, Galante will drive diversified and global revenue growth for all arms of the Academy, including the Academy Foundation and Academy Museum. She will continue to oversee strategic brand partnerships, including Oscars sponsors and advertisers, and lead efforts for Academy100, a $500MM global revenue diversification and outreach campaign the Academy publicly launched in early May.

Galante, who joined the Academy staff in 2013, most recently held the position of Executive Vice President, Revenue and Business Development and served as Senior Vice President, Business Development. Prior to joining the Academy, Galante managed corporate sponsorships for the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute’s year-round artist programs and special events.

Matt Severson, director of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, has been promoted to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Academy Collection and Preservation, effective July 1. He will oversee all collections, archival, preservation, registration, conservation and cataloging work of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy Film Archive and Academy Museum. This role centers, for the first time, all collections and preservation efforts for the entire 23 million-item Academy Collection.

Steeped in a deep knowledge of cinema and film-related collections, Severson began his Academy career in 1997 in the Photograph Archive. He became head of the Photograph Archive in 2009 before becoming the head of the Margaret Herrick Library in 2018. He holds an MA in film studies from San Francisco State University, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications. He recently edited the Academy Museum exhibition catalog Agnés Varda: Director’s Inspiration, published by the Academy and DelMonico Books last year.

Previously, Severson reported to Executive Vice President, Library, Archive and SciTech Randy Haberkamp, who will retire from the Academy this summer. Haberkamp has had a remarkable impact on the Academy during his 23 years at the organization, including overseeing the Academy Film Archive and Margaret Herrick Library, developing robust film programming, spearheading efforts to diversify Academy collections, expanding our animation collection and helping to launch our Academy Gold program. While he officially retires on August 2, Haberkamp will continue in a consultant role with the Academy until next spring.

“As the Academy evolves, we are bringing teams together to create a better sense of shared purpose across the organization,” noted Academy CEO Bill Kramer, “I am thrilled that we have an incredible team of dedicated and strategic professionals at the Academy who have greatly earned these promotions. I look forward to working with Amy, Jen, Jenny and Matt in their new roles. I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to both Jacqueline and Randy for their partnership and support. They are leaders of the highest level and will be missed by us all.”