People on the Move: Dawn Hudson

In a surprise announcement, the Board of Governors of the Motion Picture Academy have replaced retiring executive director Bruce Davis with former Film Independent head Dawn Hudson She will become the CEO of the organization which sponsors and presents the annual Academy Awards, as well as other events during the year. She will be joined by another new hire, long-time Academy executive Ric Robertson who will become the organization’s COO. Hudson has spent 20 years at the helm of Film Independent, which grew from a small non-profit into a nationally recognized arts institution, which sponsors both the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival. It is highly unusual for the Academy to go outside of its core organization for such an important post, and more surprising that it turned to someone so much more identified with indie cinema than Hollywood filmmaking. Hudson and Robertson will assume their new positions on June 1.

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