Spielberg Donates $10m to Academy Museum

Dreamworks recently gave the Academy museum project a huge boost, with two separate $10 million donations from Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.  The new museum will contain state-of-the-art galleries, exhibition space, and education centers, and these donations mean the two main galleries in the lobby will be named The Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery and The Spielberg Family Gallery.

Steven and Jeffrey share a passion for moviemaking and philanthropy. With these incredibly generous gifts, they are combining the two, moving us closer to our goal of building a museum to preserve the history of motion pictures and inspire the next generation of filmmakers – Academy Museum Campaign Chair Bob Iger.

The fundraising efforts were launched in 2012 with the aim of reaching $300 million. In just over a year over half of the money has already been donated, but when you have Annette Bening and Tom Hanks leading the committee, your phone book will be worth quite a lot of money. However, this sounds like one of the most significant projects the Academy has ever undertaken, and when finished the museum could provide a major hub of information and resources for filmmakers and researchers.

The Academy Museum is expected to open early 2017.