Jacqueline Stewart Exits as Academy Museum Chief

There is a big change at the helm of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.

Jacqueline Stewart, the distinguished academic and TCM host who has led the museum since July 2022, guiding it through the ups and downs of its first few years (it opened in late 2021) after the museum’s founding director and president Bill Kramer became the CEO of the entire Academy, is being replaced by Amy Homma, who has been with the museum for five years, most recently as its chief audience officer.

Stewart, a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, is returning to her faculty position at the University of Chicago, having presided over the opening of numerous exhibitions — most recently the museum’s much-anticipated first permanent one, Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital — as well as having initiated the museum’s first strategic planning process and made new galleries bilingual.

Homma, who worked at the Smithsonian Institution before coming to the Academy Museum, will report to Kramer and the museum’s board of trustees. Heretofore, she led the museum’s teams dealing with film programs, education and public engagement; community and impact; and digital content. She also helped to grow relationships between the Academy Museum, Academy members and the broader film community.

The Academy also announced a series of “strategic executive promotions as part of an organization-wide effort to unite teams.”

23-year Academy vet Randy Haberkamp, the organization’s EVP library, archive and sci-tech and a friend to many film academics and historians, will retire on Aug. 2 (though he will remain as an Academy consultant until next spring), prompting the promotion of Matt Severson, the current director of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, to the newly created position of EVP Academy collection and preservation, effective July 1.

Haberkamp was largely responsible for the Academy’s film programming, and for launching the Academy Gold program. Severson, who began at the Academy in 1997 in the Photograph Archive, which he came to head in 2009 before his appointment to lead the Herrick in 2018, will, in his new role, oversee all collections, archival, preservation, registration, conservation and cataloging work of the Herrick, Academy Film Archive and Academy Museum. (The Academy emphasized: “This role centers, for the first time, all collections and preservation efforts for the entire 23 million-item Academy Collection.”)

Meanwhile, Jennifer Davidson, a PR pro with considerable studio and network experience who has served as the Academy’s chief communications officer since 2021, helping to navigate the organization through times thick (the uncertainty of COVID and the aftermath of the Will Smith slap in March 2022) and thin (the organization’s relatively tranquil past year), has been promoted to the newly created role of chief marketing and communications officer, effective June 1. She will now 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.

And Jenny Galante, who has been with the Academy since 2013, most recently as EVP revenue and business development, has been promoted to the newly created role of chief revenue officer, also effective June 1. She will drive diversified and global revenue growth for all arms of the Academy, including the Academy Foundation and Academy Museum, while continuing to oversee strategic brand partnerships, including Oscars sponsors and advertisers, and to lead efforts for Academy100, a $500 million global revenue diversification and outreach campaign.

Kramer said in a statement: “As the Academy evolves, we are bringing teams together to create a better sense of shared purpose across the organization. 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.”