Bill Condon, Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Mann Elected to Academy Board of Governors

Incoming members of AMPAS Board of Governors include Dick Cook, who replaces outgoing Academy president Tom Sherak

Bill Condon, Lisa Cholodenko and Dante Spinotti are among the new members of the Academy's Board of Governors, AMPAS announced on Tuesday.

Six first-time members were elected to the board, along with three former governors returning to the board, and seven sitting governors retaining their seats.

The unusually large list of first-time governors includes directors Condon and Cholodenko, cinematographer Spinotti, executive Dick Cook, visual effects technician John Knoll and sound mixer Scott Millan.

AMPASThe returning former governors are producer Kathleen Kennedy, director Michael Mann and composer Arthur Hamilton.

Governors who retained their seats included actor Tom Hanks, documentary filmmaker Rob Epstein and animator Bill Kroyer.

Also: Jim Bissell, designers; Mark Goldblatt, film editors; Leonard Engleman, makeup artists and hairstylists; and Rob Friedman, public relations.

The 43-member Board of Governors is the seat of power at AMPAS, with ultimate authority over corporate management, control and general policies, including Oscar rules and the invitation of new members.

All but one of the Academy's 15 branches are represented by three seats on the board. The Makeup and Hairstylists Branch, which was created in 2006, has a single governor.

Governors serve three-year terms, which are staggered so that each branch has one of its three governors up for re-election every year.

An unusual 16 seats were available in this year's vote, with branch members choosing from as many as four candidates for those seats.

Governors who are losing their seats on the board include Academy president Tom Sherak, as well as Caleb Deschanel, cinematographers; Edward Zwick, directors; Mark Johnson, producers; Bruce Broughton, music; James L. Brooks, writers; Kevin O'Connell, sound; and Bill Taylor, visual effects.

Dick Cook takes the seat formerly held by Sherak, who could not run for re-election because he had reached his limit of nine consecutive years on the board.

Director Paul Mazursky stepped down from his seat on the board with two years remaining on his term; Cholodenko will serve the remainder of that term, while Mann will replace outgoing governor Edward Zwick and serve a full three-year term.

Of the governors who lost seats, the Academy does not announce which had run for re-election and which opted not to run or had reached their limit.

Former governor Kathleen Kennedy, who won a seat in the Producers Branch, defeated longtime governor Mark Johnson, who was running for re-election. Johnson must now also give up his chairmanship of the Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, where he has spearheaded a number of changes that have angered some members but also significantly reduced the confounding choices and grievous oversights that once plagued the category.

The election did not affect 29 of the 43 sitting members of the board. Among those whose terms were not up are actors Annette Bening and Ed Begley, Jr., director Kathryn Bigelow, documentarian Michael Moore, producers Gale Anne Hurd and Hawk Koch, animation director-producer John Lasseter and writers Frank Pierson and Phil Alden Robinson.

The election results increases the number of women on the AMPAS board from six to eight. Cheryl Boone Isaacs remains the only African-American member.

On July 31, the newly constituted board will meet to elect a successor to Sherak as Academy president.

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