In this season of The Academy Museum Podcast, we’ll explore the history of the job of “casting director”: one of the most essential and under-appreciated roles in filmmaking.

The biggest question around casting is: Who gets to play what role? 

It’s a question that has a huge influence - not just on a single film, but on actors’ career trajectories and on audiences’ ideas of who can be and do what.

And while casting directors are gatekeepers, they are also people who can open a director’s eyes to a possibility they hadn’t considered before, or help an actor realize their potential in a way they wouldn’t have on their own.

Throughout this season we’ll explore how casting directors have answered the question of who gets to play what role in different ways over time.

This episode will look at the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast, and how we honor animation at the Oscars today.

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Academy Museum Podcast listeners, there's no new episode this week, but tune back into the feed on August 26th for our season finale and bonus episodes to follow. And as we get to work on our second season, we'd love to hear from you, our listeners. Please leave us a comment with your thoughts - and thanks for listening and subscribing! 

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This episode will explore the evolution of #OscarsSoWhite, the ways the Academy continues to respond, and what this meant for the show's producers.

Guests: Cheryl Boone Isaacs, former President of the Academy; writer/producer/director Reginald Hudlin, who co-produced the 2016 Oscars®; April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite and Senior Advisor for Entertainment and Media at Gauge.

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

The episode will look at the history of broadcasting the Oscars®, from radio to television, the rituals fans have created around the broadcast, and a discussion of the future of presenting the Academy Awards in the age of social media.

Guests: Academy president David Rubin, ABC executive Rob Mills, comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, TCM host and entertainment expert Dave Karger

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This ceremony celebrated two films that captured the complexities of show business and its impact on women: All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard.

Guests: Laura Dern, actress; Nancy Olson, actress; Matt Severson, director of the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library; Cari Beauchamp, author/historian/documentary filmmaker

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This episode will revisit the speech actor Sacheen Littlefeather delivered on Marlon Brando's behalf to explore Native American representation in cinema and controversies about using the Oscars stage as a platform for activism.

Guests: Sacheen Littlefeather, activist/actress; Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer/songwriter

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This episode will explore the double-edged experience of Hattie McDaniel on the night she became the first Black Oscar® winner for Gone with the Wind.

Guests: Mo’Nique, actress/comedian; Whoopi Goldberg, actress/comedian; Jill Watts, historian; Kevin John Goff, Hattie McDaniel’s great grand nephew

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This episode will examine the history of blacklisting in Hollywood, looking at the treatment of writers including Dalton Trumbo (“Roman Holiday,” “The Brave One”) and Walter Bernstein (“The Front”).

Guests: Mitzi Trumbo, daughter of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo; Howard Rodman, screenwriter, former president of the Writers Guild of America West; Randy Haberkamp, the Academy’s senior vice president of preservation and foundation programs; Irwin Winkler, film producer

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

This episode will look at the success of Mexican film artists at the Oscars―Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro Gonzalez lfiarritu, Guillermo del Toro, and Emmanuel Lubezki and why US Latinx filmmakers and films are far less prevalent in the industry overall.

Guests: America Ferrera, actress/producer; Patssi Valdez, artist and founding member of the Chicano artist collective ASCO; Vanessa Erazo, entertainment journalist/critic/film curator; Carlos Aguilar, journalist/film critic; Gregory Nava, filmmaker

Academy Museum digital engagement platforms, including this podcast, are sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.