Wings (1927)
LIMITED SERIES HOLLYWOODLAND:
THE ORIGINS OF THE STUDIOS SEP 5–NOV 14, 2024
By the end of the 1920s, the movie business in the United States had become a studio system. Eight studios— Universal, Fox (later Twentieth Century-Fox), Paramount, United Artists, Warner Bros., Columbia, Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, and RKO—led the industry through vertical integration of production, distribution, and theaters. Writers, actors, directors, and other film artists were generally under contract to individual studios. The industry would begin to change in the 1950s due to a variety of factors, including a 1948 Supreme Court ruling that challenged the studio system under antitrust laws. This screening series accompanies the exhibition Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital , which tells the origin story of filmmaking in early 20th-century Los Angeles and spotlights the impact of the predominately Jewish filmmakers whose establishment of the American film studio system transformed the city into a global epicenter of cinema. It celebrates eight major studios, each through one representative title that played an instrumental role in its successful growth. Academy Museum visitors who purchase general admission to the museum are welcome to join us for same-day screenings in this film series during their visit, free of charge. HOLLYWOODLAND: JEWISH FOUNDERS AND THE MAKING OF A MOVIE CAPITAL is curated by Associate Curator Dara Jaffe and is the Academy Museum’s first permanent exhibition.
Programmed by K.J. Relth-Miller. Notes by Hyesung ii and K.J. Relth-Miller adapted from HOLLYWOODLAND exhibition texts.
Wings Thu, Sep 5 | 7:30pm | TMT Sun, Sep 8 | 2pm | TMT Mon, Sep 9 | 2pm | TMT
DIRECTED BY: William A. Wellman. WRITTEN BY: Hope Loring, Louis D. Lighton. STORY BY: John Monk Saunders. WITH: Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston. 1927. 139 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP.
In 1916, Jewish producers Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky merged their studios to form the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation, which soon acquired and took the name of its distributor: Paramount Pictures. The studio’s first production facility in Hollywood was a converted barn used by Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille since 1913. Zukor was known for challenging runtime restrictions with his long-form narratives drawn from classical sources. Under his watch, Paramount films reflected the sophistication he valued. Its groundbreaking romantic war epic, William A. Wellman’s Wings , became the first film to win an Oscar for the category now known as Best Picture, an achievement that helped cement Paramount’s legacy.
Sunrise in 35mm Fri, Sep 13 | 2pm | TMT Sun, Sep 15 | 2pm | TMT Wed, Sep 18 | 2pm | DGT
Jewish, Hungarian-born William Fox, enchanted by movies, transitioned from the garment industry to nickelodeons in 1904. He combined his various theaters and distribution companies to form the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Resolving to create better products for his theater chain, Fox moved his focus to production. F. W. Murnau’s romantic classic Sunrise , also known as Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans , produced by Fox himself, is one of the final
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