Oscar-winning deaf actor Marlee Matlin, who featured this year in the Best Picture winner CODA, has been appointed to the Academy’s board of governors, the organization said Wednesday.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives the prestigious Oscar awards held every year. The organization said Matlin was elected into the new slate of governors who will take over the job for the 2022-23 season.
Governors are selected from 17 branches of filmmakers, including actors, directors, producers, editors, and visual effects crew. They look into and supervise the work of the Academy.
Along with Matlin, Steven Spielberg and Selma director Ava Duvernay are the other prominent members of the Academy’s board of governors.
Matlin fills the vacant spot left over by Laura Dern (Marriage Story), joining Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost, The Color Purple) and Rita Wilson (Sleepless in Seattle).
Matlin, the first deaf actor to win an Oscar for her role in “Children of a Lesser God,” was praised this year for her outstanding acting in “CODA.”- a movie that narrates the story of Ruby, a high school deaf teenager as she copes with her musical ambitions alongside her family’s dependence on her to communicate with the abled world.
