Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Oscars Get Indie Spirit Award Chief to Lead Them

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This is great news: Dawn Hudson, who invented and ran the Indie Spirit Awards for 26 years, is taking over the Academy Awards. Hudson was voted in last night to replace outgoing longtime Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences head Bruce Davis. Hudson may be the breath of fresh for which the Academy has been pining. After this years’ low rated and poorly received Oscar broadcast, it was time for a change. If anyone can make the Oscars hipper, it will be Hudson and the people she brings in with her. Staying at his post is Ric Robertson, who will be the link between the old and new, and of course the great Leslie Unger, who runs the pr side of the Academy with a big bottle of Excedrin at her side! Hudson’s Spirit Awards have always been clever and lively, so let’s hope for the best–and maybe even an Oscar appearance by Spirit Award fave John Waters. Now that would be fun! PS Note to Dawn: please put the big TV back in the Kodak Theater bar, and turn on the sound.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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