On this date… 11 January 1927

the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was proposed

Lights. Camera. Action! Famous words for the famous endeavor of movie making. While movies themselves have been around since the late 1800s – the oldest surviving film, from 1888, lasts just over two seconds from French inventor Louis Le Prince, the Roundhay Garden Scene – the organization that celebrates their biggest achievements is much younger.

Originally intended as a way to arbitrate and negotiate Hollywood labor disputes, and bad publicity, before either became a hassle to the studio, the initial idea for what would later become the Academy was floated in early 1927. In the years leading up to the founding, Hollywood had been racked by change and scandal. Technology was changing from silent to “talkies.” Beloved star Charlie Chaplin had an ill-fated marriage and divorce with Lita Grey, whom he had been seeing when she was underage. There had been rumors of wild drug use and murders. Not to mention talks of unionization within the ranks of workers – the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which governed much of the behind-the-scenes work in Hollywood, signed their first Basic Agreement that dealt with wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions in November 1926. By 1933 both the Screen Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild would be formed. Back before all this, the studios had almost complete control over all aspects of production, from the set workers to the actors and directors. Abuse ran rampant.

To continue to maintain control, Famed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio head Louis B Mayer gathered a group of thirty-six industry professionals at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. There, on 11 January 1927, he proposed an idea for what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. By the time the organization was officially incorporated on 11 May 1927, the “International” had been dropped. The founding members were spread across five branches of film: Actors, Directors, Producers, Writers, and Technicians. Some of the original thirty-six members included actors Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, directors Cecil B. DeMille and Fred Niblo, producers Irving Thalberg and Harry and Jack L. Warner (co-founders of the Warner Bros.), writers Jeanie MacPherson and Bess Meredyth, and Technician Cedric Gibbons, who created the first Oscar statuette. There are now seventeen branches that spread the entire breadth of the film industry.

Soon it was clear the Academy was less concerned with settling labor disputes and more concerned with power. Nowhere was this more true than when it sided with studios during the Great Depression where it encouraged employees to agree to voluntary reductions in wages and salaries.

By this time it had more or less fully transitioned to the Academy in its modern role as an honorary organization. The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929. The ceremony was first broadcast nationally on the radio in 1944, and on television in 1953, with a dual broadcast in both New York and Los Angeles. Bob Hope served as host in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, while original member Conrad Nagel hosted from the NBC International Theatre on Columbus Circle in New York. Even after the momentous event, the Awards were simultaneously broadcast on radio as late as 1968.

After years of declining rating interest and even more scandals, including the infamous #OscarsSoWhite from both 2015 and 2016 where minority representation both behind-the-scenes and on screen was virtually nonexistent, the Academy expanded its membership to more than 10,000 global film industry artists and leaders that is supposed to better represent the demographics of modern film-goers.

In addition to the annual Awards, the Academy also presents its Scientific and Technical Awards, gives Student Academy Awards to filmmakers at the undergraduate and graduate level, holds the annual Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, and operates the Margaret Herrick Library and the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study. It also opened the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2021.