Academy lays off archives and library staff as part of restructuring process

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences laid off most of its archives and library staff on Wednesday, including Academy Film Archive 24-year-old director Mike Pogorzelski. A source familiar with the layoffs said several of the affected employees had worked at the Academy for more than a decade.

The changes, announced Wednesday by Academy CEO Bill Cramer in an internal statement obtained by Diversitycomes amid an ongoing restructuring initiative within the organization. As a result of the cuts, the activities of the archive, library and collections department will be transferred to the newly formed collections and storage department of the Academy.

“As part of this effort to create a new collections and preservation department for the Academy, some team members will be leaving the Academy this week,” Kramer wrote, adding that it affected “less than 2% of our total workforce.” “We know that saying goodbye to colleagues is incredibly difficult. We are deeply committed to supporting those leaving and are finalizing a new reporting structure which we will share soon.”

The layoffs come a day before the Academy announced it was expanding its collection, which it says exceeds 52 million items. On Thursday, the organization released a press release headlined by such new works as the original handwritten draft of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” screenplay, the trashy dress worn by Jamie Lee Curtis in James Cameron’s “True Lies,” and more than 80 works by Hayao Miyazaki and Nobura Yoshida.

The Academy and the Academy Foundation Employees Union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since Bill Kramer was named the organization’s CEO in 2022, the Academy has undergone a number of structural changes across many departments, including the appointment of Amy Homma to oversee the museum, as well as expanded oversight of Matt Severson as once head of library operations, who now heads collection, archiving and selection of elements Academy Museum.

The Academy Film Archive is one of the most extensive film collections in the world and a leader in preservation. The Academy Library, known as the Margaret Herrick Library, is one of the world’s leading research resources for film history.