°IJʿ Professor Penny Lane
°IJʿ Assistant Professor of Art and Art History joins Gal Gadot, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, and Betty White as one of 774 new members invited into The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week.
According to , Lane is part of the largest group of invitees in Academy history, and is a member of one of the seven Academy branches that invited more women than men. Overall, 39 percent of new invitees this year are women, another record for the Academy.
“It’s an incredible honor to be invited to the Academy,” said Lane, adding that she is fairly certain that she is the first °IJʿ professor to be inducted. “This post is made by nomination and voted on by the existing members of the documentary branch, so it’s a really nice signal from my peers that they felt my voice and presence would be valuable.”
“The rules governing the ‘best documentary’ category has been subject to a lot of change over the past few years, and I’m excited to get involved in the ongoing debate around which films are eligible for the award,” said Lane.
In addition to joining the historic class of new inductees, Lane was named by indiwire.com as one of the .