Director Brett Ratner is donating $1 million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to help build its new museum, the Academy announced Wednesday.
"Brett has a sincere love of movies and film history, and we are excited to welcome him to our group of supporters," said Bill Kramer, the museum's managing director of development.
The Academy launched the Museum's capital campaign in 2012 and has already secured more than half of the campaign's $300 million goal in commitments. The campaign is chaired by Walt Disney Co. president and chief executive Bob IgerBob Iger and co-chaired by Annette Bening and Tom Hanks.
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"Thanks to the generosity of founding supporters like Brett, we are now able to realize the long-held dream of the Academy and that of the global film community to build a museum dedicated to the history and future of the movies," said Iger.
"I feel blessed to be part of such a magnificent museum. I was blown away by the recent (Stanley) Kubrick exhibit at LACMA, which the Academy co-sponsored. I couldn't be more excited that our Academy will finally have its own museum that will preserve and exhibit cinema's greatest work," said Ratner.
The director and the Academy made headlines two years ago, when he made an early exit as producer of the Oscar ceremony in the wake of an anti-gay slur made while promoting a movie prior to the show. He aplogized, and has since been recoginized for his efforts in promoting equality by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, for whom he produced several public service announcements.