Academy Museum to Open with 'The Wizard of Oz'

General view of the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS) Museum under construction on July 10, 2018. (AFP)
General view of the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Museum under construction on July 10, 2018. (AFP)
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Academy Museum to Open with 'The Wizard of Oz'

General view of the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS) Museum under construction on July 10, 2018. (AFP)
General view of the new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Museum under construction on July 10, 2018. (AFP)

Opening on September 30, the Oscar Museum dedicated to the magic of movies, will be screening the 'The Wizard of Oz', and featuring a live musical orchestra from the American Youth Symphony, reported AFP news agency.

Also on the opening weeks' schedule are a "Malcolm X" screening for museum members featuring Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, and showings of all Japanese Hayao Miyazaki's films.

Dedicated to the magic of movies and first dreamt up almost a century ago, the museum, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, was scheduled to open in 2017. However, it was delayed many times, and the coronavirus outbreak further delayed it last year.

Equipped with the latest techniques, a cinema venue, which accommodates up to 1,000 seats, is built inside a giant ball made of glass, steel, and concrete. It's located next to the museum, and linked to it with high corridors.

The museum is aimed at introducing visitors to the history of cinema, its creations, and the techniques used in movie making.

The 28,000 square meter- museum -- including 4,500 square meters of gallery space -- is set to host iconic Hollywood treasures such as a the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in 'The Wizard of Oz," gown worn in "Cleopatra" (1934) and a Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" spacesuit.

Most California coronavirus restrictions have been lifted, although Los Angeles County recently reinstated mandatory indoor mask wearing even for the vaccinated.



Schwarzenegger Tells Environmentalists Dismayed by Trump to ‘Stop Whining’ and Get to Work 

US-Austrian actor, businessman and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks as he attends a panel discussion during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Austria on June 3, 2025. (AFP)
US-Austrian actor, businessman and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks as he attends a panel discussion during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Austria on June 3, 2025. (AFP)
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Schwarzenegger Tells Environmentalists Dismayed by Trump to ‘Stop Whining’ and Get to Work 

US-Austrian actor, businessman and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks as he attends a panel discussion during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Austria on June 3, 2025. (AFP)
US-Austrian actor, businessman and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks as he attends a panel discussion during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, Austria on June 3, 2025. (AFP)

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for environmentalists who despair at the approach of President Donald Trump's administration: “Stop whining and get to work.”

The new US administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.

Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011.

He said Tuesday he keeps hearing from environmentalists and policy experts lately who ask, “What is the point of fighting for a clean environment when the government of the United States says climate change is a hoax and coal and oil is the future?”

Schwarzenegger told the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, an event he helps organize, that he responds: “Stop whining and get to work.”

He pointed to examples of local and regional governments and companies taking action, including his own administration in California, and argued 70% of pollution is reduced at the local or state level.

“Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts (up) solar roofs," he said.

“You can't just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn't agree with you,” he said, adding that attacking the president is “not my style” and he doesn't criticize any president when outside the US.

“I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom,” Schwarzenegger said. “The only way we win the people's hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.”