Hollywoodland: The Origins of the Studios

By the end of the 1920s, the movie business in the United States had become a studio system. Eight studios—Universal, Fox (later Twentieth Century-Fox), Paramount, United Artists, Warner Bros., Columbia, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and RKO—led the industry through vertical integration of production, distribution, and theaters. Writers, actors, directors, and other film artists were generally under contract to individual studios. The industry would begin to change in the 1950s due to a variety of factors, including a 1948 Supreme Court ruling that challenged the studio system under antitrust laws. This screening series accompanies the exhibition Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital, which tells the origin story of filmmaking in early 20th-century Los Angeles and spotlights the impact of the predominately Jewish filmmakers whose establishment of the American film studio system transformed the city into a global epicenter of cinema. It celebrates eight major studios, each through one representative title that played an instrumental role in its successful growth.  
 
Academy Museum visitors who purchase general admission to the museum are welcome to join us for same-day screenings in this film series during their visit, free of charge.

Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital is curated by Associate Curator Dara Jaffe and is the Academy Museum’s first permanent exhibition.