Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose, Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chair and CEO Pamela Abdy and nationally recognized trial lawyer Wylie A. Aitken have joined the American Film Institute’s board of trustees, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
“AFI is the place where artistry and academia meet,” Kathleen Kennedy, the board’s chair, tells THR. “The addition of Pam, Wylie and Ari to the board will further propel our national mandate to inspire, to educate and, ultimately, to drive culture forward.”
The board, which sets AFI’s priorities and guides its national education programs, is already packed with big names. Among them: actors Halle Berry and Michael B. Jordan; filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Ava DuVernay; TV creators Jay Roach and Shonda Rhimes; studio/network chiefs Ted Sarandos and Donna Langley; power-agents Bryan Lourd and Chris Silbermann; the noted academic Jeanine Basinger; MPA chief Charles Rivkin, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher; and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president Janet Yang.
The American Film Institute was established by presidential proclamation and on June 5, 1967, launched its national mandate: to preserve the heritage of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.
The organization’s founding trustees included chairman Gregory Peck, vice chairman Sidney Poitier, Francis Ford Coppola, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Jack Valenti and George Stevens Jr., as director.
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