Growing up, Amy Homma knew one thing: She wanted to work in a museum. “When other kids my age said, ‘I want to be a ballerina. I want to be a scientist,’ I thought, ‘I want to work at a museum,’” she says. “I've known that those are the places where incredible stories can be told, where magical experiences and memories can be developed.”
Homma also spent many formative hours watching movies with her family. First musicals, then films from every genre. Those mornings, afternoons, and evenings made a lasting impression.
“I remember watching these movies in my living room, enjoying them with my sister, and being enamored with the costume design, with the sets, the production design down to every detail,” she says. “The music and the dancing that encompassed the storytelling was magical, and it took my breath away.”
So it’s no surprise that Homma found her way to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, first as inaugural director of education and public engagement, then chief audience officer, and most recently as director and president. It’s a narrative arc worthy of its own movie. “I like to think that my love of film has led me to where I am now because it's allowed me to appreciate all of the artistry, all of the science, and all of the collaboration that goes into making a movie,” she says. “That's what I built my career on.”
Under Homma’s leadership, the Academy Museum is committed to expanding its starring role as a beacon to all things cinema. The establishment blends the best ideas of art museums, science museums, technology centers, children’s museums, and more into an all-encompassing film experience, one that demonstrates, examines, and champions the dedication and teamwork required to create a lasting movie.
“How do we merge the science with the art to make something magical for the public to consume?” Homma asks. “It's really the foundation of experiencing film that allowed me to start to understand and fully develop my own appreciation and love for that kind of collaboration behind the scenes.”
Great museums require great partners, and Homma credits Rolex for its unwavering support of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the art of cinema.
This enduring partnership is woven into the fabric of what the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures does, including the Academy Museum Gala, educational programs, screenings, publications, and exceptional collections. The Rolex Gallery, which sits on the third floor, features modular exhibitions that are designed as singular journeys through different moments in film history. One recent example showed two presentations of the same film—one made through a contemporary lens and one made nearly 80 years ago. Seeing how two different filmmakers depicted the exact same story in two separate mediums nearly a century apart gives visitors a sense of discovery and helps bridge the connections between past and present.
Expanding the public’s love of cinema means expanding their ability to interact with movies and movie history, which is why Homma and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are prioritizing accessibility at the museum. These efforts include offering tours in American Sign Language and having visual description tours for visitors who are blind or low vision. The “Calm Morning” program creates sensory-friendly spaces with moderated sound and lighting displays as a way to help include visitors with sensory-processing disorders and their caregivers and families.
“We're making those sensory adaptations to ensure that visitors of all kinds can experience the museum in ways that are fun and supportive to where they're at with their learning,” Homma says.
Additionally, weekly tours with students in the Los Angeles County school system give the next generation of potential directors, cinematographers, costumer designers, producers, actors, and others more insight into the profession. Family workshops on weekends offer intergenerational audiences the opportunity to learn skills such as stop motion animation and sound design. The best way to learn, after all, is to do (and to be inspired by one’s surroundings).
.html)
For Homma, leading programming at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a gift. “To give the public an opportunity to learn, grow, and foster their own love of cinema through our four walls is truly a dream come true,” she says. “There are so many more stories of film that we are committed to telling and that we will be telling in future years to come. And it's at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures where we can harness that energy and we can explore that together.”
