Academy Names 2026-2027 Committee Chairs, Including a New Marquee Theater Panel Led by Sean Baker and Samantha Quan
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named its 2026-2027 committee and affinity group chairs and vice chairs, a roster that puts some of the most recognisable names in the organisation behind the machinery that runs the Oscars and the Academy's year-round programmes. All appointments carry one-year terms. Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor and CEO Bill Kramer offered remarks on the slate. Deadline
The headline item is a brand-new body: the Academy Marquee Theater Committee, which will review submissions and recommend cinemas for inclusion on the Academy Marquee Theater List — a fresh initiative to single out outstanding motion picture theatres worldwide. Co-chairing it are Sean Baker, from the Directors Branch, and Samantha Quan, from the Producers Branch. Baker and Quan, who are married, both took home Oscars earlier this year. The new committee effectively gives the Academy a formal hand in celebrating the exhibition side of the business — the physical venues where films meet audiences — alongside its long-standing work in production crafts and awards.
Several other committees received fresh leadership. The International Feature Film Executive Committee — the group that oversees the Oscars' international feature film category — will be co-chaired by Michèle Ohayon (Documentary Branch) and James Wilson (Producers Branch). Summer Joy Main-Muñoz (Short Films Branch) chairs the Short Films Qualifying Festivals Selection Committee, which decides which film festivals can serve as a pipeline for Oscar-eligible shorts. Darin Grant and Rachel Rose, both from the Visual Effects Branch, will co-chair the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee, the panel that honours innovation in film technology.
The Academy's branch executive committees — each branch's governing body — also received their chairs. Rita Wilson leads the Actors Branch. Marlon West chairs Animation. Kim Taylor-Coleman takes Casting Directors. Paul Cameron heads Cinematographers. Daniel Orlandi guides Costume Designers. Patricia Cardoso leads Directors. Jean Tsien chairs Documentary. Pam Abdy — a Warner Bros. studio executive — takes the Executives Branch. Terilyn A. Shropshire runs Film Editors. Gerald Quist chairs Makeup Artists and Hairstylists.
What stands out is the breadth of the slate. The chairs span nearly every craft the Academy represents, from acting to visual effects, and the creation of the Marquee Theater Committee adds a new thread to an organisation already managing awards, membership, grants, and a museum. The one-year term structure means this lineup is provisional by design — a rotating bench rather than a fixed cabinet.
For audiences, the practical effects will be indirect. These committees shape which films qualify for awards, which festivals matter as Oscar gateways, and now, which theatres the Academy deems world-class. None of it changes what plays on screen tomorrow. But it does shape the infrastructure that decides what reaches a screen at all.
