The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches.

[5][6] The notion of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) began with Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry: actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers.

[9] After their brief meeting, Mayer gathered up a group of thirty-six people involved in the film industry and invited them to a formal banquet at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on January 11, 1927.

[10] That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[9] Between that evening and when the official Articles of Incorporation for the organization were filed on May 4, 1927, the "International" was dropped from the name, becoming the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences".

At that meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as the first president of the Academy, while Fred Niblo was the first vice-president, and their first roster, composed of 230 members, was printed.

In May 1928, the Academy authorized the construction of a state of the art screening room, to be located in the Club lounge of the hotel.

1): Incandescent Illumination in July 1928,[18] the Academy began a long history of publishing books to assist its members.

[19][20][21] Research Council[22] of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences trained Signal Corps officers, during World War II,[15][23] who later won two Oscars, for Seeds of Destiny and Toward Independence.

[24][25] In 1929, Academy members, in a joint venture with the University of Southern California, created America's first film school to further the art and science of moving pictures.

The school's founding faculty included Fairbanks (President of the Academy), D. W. Griffith, William C. deMille, Ernst Lubitsch, Irving Thalberg, and Darryl F.

[26] 1930 saw another move, to the Hollywood Professional Building, in order to accommodate the enlarging staff,[15] and by December of that year the library was acknowledged as "having one of the most complete collections of information on the motion picture industry anywhere in existence.

[15] In 1934, the Academy began publication of the Screen Achievement Records Bulletin, which today is known as the Motion Picture Credits Database.

[15] The Academy acquired property at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills in 1972, and built its current headquarters building on the site; the new facilities opened in 1975.

"[31] When the nominations for acting were all white for a second year in a row Gil Robertson IV, president of the African American Film Critics Association called it "offensive.

"[citation needed] The actors' branch is "overwhelmingly white" and the question is raised whether conscious or unconscious racial biases played a role.

Al Sharpton called for a boycott of the 2016 Oscars for failing to recognize minority achievements, the board voted to make "historic" changes to its membership.

The building includes the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, which seats 1,012, and was designed to present films at maximum technical accuracy, with state-of-the-art projection equipment and sound system.

The building, originally dedicated on August 18, 1948, is the oldest surviving structure in Hollywood that was designed specifically with television in mind.

It is home to the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library, a world-renowned, non-circulating reference and research collection devoted to the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and an industry.

The 220-seat venue was redesigned in 2011 by renowned theater designer Theo Kalomirakis, including an extensive installation of new audio and visual equipment.

On June 29, 2016, a paradigm shift began in the Academy's selection process, resulting in a new class comprising 46% women and 41% people of color.

[51] Reign created the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite as a means of criticizing the dearth of non-white nominees for the 2015 Academy Awards.

Though the hashtag drew widespread media attention, the Academy remained obstinate on the matter of adopting a resolution that would make demonstrable its efforts to increase diversity.

April Reign revived #OscarsSoWhite, and renewed her campaign efforts, which included multiple media appearances and interviews with reputable news outlets.

As a result of Reign's campaign, the discourse surrounding representation and recognition in film spread beyond the United States and became a global discussion [citation needed].