The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures: Los Angeles’ Movie Museum
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Los Angeles finally has a proper museum dedicated to the movies. The Oscar Museum is a must-visit during your visit to Los Angeles.
For a city built by the movies, Los Angeles has a massive lack of film-centric museums. The long-awaited opening of The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures seeks to change that. After much delay, the museum opened to the public in September of 2021.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Location
The museum is located in the Museum Row portion of the Miracle Mile in West Los Angeles. The best way to get to the museum is by bus or in your car. Parking in their lot is high at USD$18. Cheaper street parking can be found nearby at meters or (if you don’t mind a short walk) free parking is available in the nearby residential neighborhoods.
When completed In 2024, the museum will be located across from the Purple Line subway Metro stop at Wilshire and Fairfax.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Tickets
Tickets must be booked in advance online and are currently priced at USD$25 with discounts for seniors and college students. Kids 17 and under are free. The tickets are timed, so you will also need to select a day and time for your visit. Weekday tickets are widely available, but weekends tend to sell out 3-4 weeks in advance.
Los Angeles Public Library members can access a limited supply of free tickets with their library card.
What To See at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
The main exhibition spaces are on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors. We recommend starting on the fourth floor and working down.
In the temporary exhibition space, there is currently a whimsical and fun exhibition celebrating the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. It is a truly immersive and magical museum experience; a highlight of the visit.
The largest exhibit is the Stories of Cinema which is spread between three floors. This is a permanent exhibit that attempts to tell the story of motion pictures by celebrating each aspect of filmmaking, or more accurately, each Oscar Award category. There’s the acting, the costumes, the editing, etc.
This is where you will find a small, yet impressive collection of some of the most famous and iconic pieces of film history: The sled from Citizen Kane, screen-used costumes, and the shark from Jaws.
Mixed into the Stories of Cinema was my favorite display in the museum featuring a timeline of Oscar event history with screens playing historic Oscar acceptance speeches.
Closed during our visit, the Oscars Experience, which reports to give you the chance to hold a real Oscar while giving your own acceptance speech. Filmed from multiple angles, the tape of your big moment arrives in your inbox before you get home. This is a USD$15 up-charge portion of the museum.
I was disappointed that that giant sphere-shaped theater and terrace that I have watched being built over the last five years was not part of the tour. I guess that will have to wait until I get invited to a star-studded event.
Overall I enjoyed our visit to the museum. I did feel that it was a little bit confusing where the exhibits started and ended. Many of the doors are closed and tinted which makes for a great experience inside the exhibit, but every time I opened a door I was worried that I was about to enter someplace where I wasn’t supposed to be.
Make sure to consult the free map to make sure you don’t miss anything.
How Long Does it Take to See The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures?
We saw the entire museum in about 3 hours, but If you stopped to read everything or enjoy every film clip, you could turn this into an all-day event.
For lunch, there is a cafe in the museum lobby that is massively expensive (hello $17 burritos). A better option is to get some takeaway from the many restaurants down Wilshire Blvd. and enjoy it in the La Brea Tar Pits picnic area. On weekdays, the area around the park is a hot-spot for LA Food Trucks.
As long as you keep your wristband on you can pop back into the museum to finish up your visit after lunch.
It's pretty likely that your visit to Los Angeles is centered around a love of movies. Visiting The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will give you a deeper appreciation for the craft of filmmaking.
If you're looking to get back into the sunshine after your indoor museum day, check out our Hollywood Boulevard Half Day Itinerary.
