3 casting directors elected to film academy’s Board of Governors

Three members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ newly created casting directors branch have been elected to the Board of Governors.

The new governors are David Rubin (“Gravity,” “Smurfs 2”), who will serve a three-year term; Bernie Telsey (“Friends with Kids”), who was elected to a two-year term; and Lora Kennedy (“Argo,” “Man of Steel”), who will serve a one-year term.

“The addition of these exceptional professionals to our board is another positive step toward making our organization more inclusive and more reflective of a broader industry,” academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement Monday. “We welcome them, their ideas and their insights wholeheartedly.”

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In June, Rubin had given a presentation to the academy’s general membership committee about the need for a separate branch for casting directors. The 59 casting directors now in the organization had previously been admitted as members at large.

“The casting process generally takes place behind closed doors between a casting director, a director and a producer, so there is little known about it,” Rubin said in a July interview with The Times. “Part of this endeavor was to inform other academy members about what our job entails and its effect on movies.”

The addition of the casting directors branch was approved in July.

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