Steve Jobs invited to join Motion Picture Academy
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jun 27, 2005 at 3:23pm
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has extended membership invitations to 112 artists and executives “who have distinguished themselves in the field of theatrical motion pictures.” Steve Jobs, who is CEO of Pixar as well as Apple, is among those invited to join. The group will be the only new voting members invited to join the organization in 2005.
“Our decision to slow the growth of the Academy, and to become even more selective in our membership process, is working,” said Academy President Frank Pierson in a press release. “The branch membership committees understand what the Academy is trying to do and have begun searching for the top exemplars in their respective areas, presenting to the board only their most impressive candidates.”
The membership procedures instituted last year allow the organization to grow — after filling vacancies resulting from deaths and members opting for retired (non-voting) status — by a maximum of 30 new members annually. Pierson said that even if all the 2005 invitees accept their invitations, the Academy’s number of voting members will actually shrink slightly compared to the roster of voting members at the same time period in 2004.
“We’re in the early stages of a slow but deliberate refining process, ” he said.
Candidates for Academy membership are normally proposed by members and then considered by committees made up of prominent representatives of each of the organization’s 14 branches — art directors, executives, film editors, etc. In addition, individuals nominated for Academy Awards, if not already members of the organization, are automatically considered by the appropriate committees, though not necessarily invited to membership.
New members will be welcomed into the organization at an invitation-only reception on Wednesday, September 21, at the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
