Oscars: Steven Spielberg, Donna Gigliotti Among 63 Finalists for Academy Board (Exclusive)

Of the hundreds of members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who threw their hat into the ring last month for a seat on the organization’s board of governors, 63 have advanced to the final round of voting, The Hollwood Reporter has learned. They include incumbents such as the legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg and actress Laura Dern and challengers ranging from Sony chief Tom Rothman to Get Out and Us producer Jason Blum.

No more than four candidates per branch can advance to this round, hence its nickname “the final four” — although two branches fielded fewer than that number, costume designers (two) and designers (one).

The Academy’s board consists of 54 elected governors, three representing each of the 17 branches, whose three-year terms are staggered so that one seat comes open every three years — plus three governors-at-large appointed by the president to one three-year term.

Of the 17 seats up for election this year, 11 were being pursued again by their incumbents, and all 11 of those individuals advanced — Oscar nominee/Big Little Lies star Dern (actors), three-time Oscar winner Spielberg (directors), Oscar nominee and Academy Science and Technology Council co-chair Craig Barron (visual effects), Kevin Collier (sound), Oscar nominee Mark Goldblatt (film editors), Rain Man Oscar winner Mark Johnson (producers), Laura Karpman (music), Oscar nominee Jan Pascale (designers), Academy secretary David Rubin (casting directors), Fox Searchlight co-chief Nancy Utley (marketing and public relations) and Roger Ross Williams, the first black director ever to win an Oscar.

As for the other six incumbents? Three are “terming out,” having served the maximum allowed three consecutive three-year terms on the board — current president John Bailey (cinematographers), Jon Bloom (short films and feature animation) and Robin Swicord (writers). And three more have chosen not to seek re-election — Sharen Davis (costume designers), Leonard Engelman (makeup artists and hairstylists) and Daniel Fellman (executives).

The original three governors-at-large are terming out this cycle, but interestingly, each of them entered the running for the seat for their actual branch, and each has advanced to the final round — Reginald Hudlin (directors), who is taking on Spielberg, plus Gregory Nava (writers) and Jennifer Yuh Nelson (short films and feature animation), who are pursuing vacated seats.

The new governors-at-large were announced May 13.

Several other former governors seeking to return to the board have also advanced to the finals: Curt R. Behlmer (sound), Bill Corso (makeup artists and hairstylists), Richard P. Crudo (cinematographers), Charles Fox (music) and Michael Mann (directors).

Other notables who are now but one step away from landing a seat on the board include Donna Gigliotti (executives), the Oscar-winning producer of Shakespeare in Love, who also produced this year’s well-received 91st Oscars; Michael Barker, the Sony Classics co-chief, and Mike Medavoy, the former Orion co-chief, both vying to represent executives; top publicists Kelly Bush Novak, who runs the firm ID, and Tony Angellotti, the awards strategist behind Green Book‘s recent best picture Oscar campaign; Ruth E. Carter, who this year, for her work on Black Panther, became the first black winner of the best costume design Oscar; two Oscar-winning screenwriters, John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump); Lynette Howell Taylor, recently Oscar-nominated for producing A Star Is Born; actresses Margaret Avery, an Oscar nominee for The Color Purple, and Rita Wilson, whose husband Tom Hanks once represented the branch on the board; and cinematographer Ellen Kuras, who recently directed two of the six installments of George Clooney‘s Hulu series Catch-22.

Boldfaced names not advancing beyond the first round include producers Mace Neufeld and Paula Wagner; Tom Bernard, the other co-chief of Sony Classics; Ed Catmull, the former president of the Pixar and Walt Disney Animation studios; Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino; and Oscar-winning producers Cathy Schulman (Crash) and Irwin Winkler (Rocky).

Results from the final round of voting are expected to be announced in June, and Academy officer elections will take place in July or August during the first meeting of the newly reconstituted board.

Read the full list of finalists for the Academy’s 2019 board of governors elections below.

Actors
Margaret Avery
Lauren Dern
Tim Matheson
Rita Wilson

Casting Directors
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
David Rubin
Margery Simkin

Cinematographers
Richard P. Crudo
Michael Goi
Ellen Kuras
Newton Thomas Sigel

Costume Designers
Ruth E. Carter
Judianna Makovsky

Designers
Jan Pascale

Directors
Niki Caro
Reginald Hudlin
Michael Mann
Steven Spielberg

Documentary
Karen Goodman
Lynne Littman
Richard Pearce
Roger Ross Williams

Executives
Michael W. Barker
Donna Gigliotti
Mike Medavoy
Thomas F. Rothman

Film Editors
Dody J. Dorn
Mark Goldblatt
Mark Helfrich
Mary Sweeney

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Howard Berger
Michele Burker
Bill Corso
Ve Neill

Marketing and Public Relations
Tony Angellotti
Kevin Goetz
Kelly Bush Novak
Nancy Utley

Music
John C. Debney
Sharon Farber
Charles Fox
Laura Karpman

Producers
Jason Blum
Jennifer Fox
Mark Johnson
Lynette Howell Taylor

Short Films and Feature Animation
Ron Diamond
Bob Kurtz
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Marlon West

Sound
Curt R. Behlmer
Richard Branca
Kevin Collier
Douglas Greenfield

Visual Effects
Craig Barron
Rob Bredow
Helena Packer
Theresa Ellis Rygiel

Writers
Gregory Nava
John Ridley
Eric Roth
Dana Stevens