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Hi, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to the 576th episode of the Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. I'm the host, Scott Feinberg. And my guest today is, and since 22, has been

the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an organization that has been around since

1927, and, rather famously, has been handing out gold statuettes that we now call Oscars

since 1929. In that capacity, he oversees some 700 employees spread between Los Angeles,

New York, and London, and all aspects of the Academy's

operations, including but not limited to the Oscars, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures,

the Margaret Herrick Library, and the Academy Film Archive. His predecessor, Don Hudson,

called him a visionary, and declared that no executive is more innovative, more connected to artists,

or more compassionate about the opportunities that lie ahead. Former Academy President David Rubin

labeled him a transformational leader, and current Academy President Janet Yang described him

as a dynamic and transformational leader. Bill Kramer.

Over the course of a conversation in the 6th floor C-suite of the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters,

on the Monday before the Sunday of the 97th Oscars,

the 56-year-old and I discussed his unlikely journey from the Baltimore area to the center of Hollywood,

...