Otto Preminger

Director and producer Otto Preminger lived a colorful personal life and enjoyed a tempestuous, dramatic professional career that has left a lasting mark on American culture. According to his autobiography, Preminger was born in Vienna on December 5, 1906, although other published sources suggest that his birth occurred one year earlier, in 1905. Taking the director at his word, the Academy is celebrating Preminger’s centennial this year, with this tribute as well as a retrospective film series highlighted by recent restorations and newly made prints, many from the Otto Preminger Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

A successful stage director in Vienna, Preminger made his film directing debut there before emigrating to the United States in 1935; he spent the remainder of the 1930s and early 1940s producing, and occasionally acting in, Broadway productions as well as toiling as a B-movie director at 20th Century-Fox.  In 1943 Preminger battled his nemesis, studio head Darryl Zanuck, over the script and casting of his next project, Laura. The resulting film was a triumph that earned him his first Academy Award® nomination for directing.  In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Preminger went on to direct a number of important films for 20th Century-Fox, including Fallen Angel, Forever Amber, Where the Sidewalk Ends and River of No Return.

A man of strong beliefs, Preminger delighted in challenging authority, a quality that often led to clashes with studio executives and censors. In the early 1950s, Preminger formed his own production company, and as an independent producer he became known for taking on controversial topics. The Moon Is Blue (1953), a sex comedy that contained themes considered mature at the time, was released without a Production Code seal of approval. Preminger tackled heroin addiction in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), frankly addressed the issue of rape in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and took a strong stand in support of the founding of Israel with Exodus (1960). He also continued to direct adaptations of stage productions, including the black-cast musicals Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959). Preminger received his second Academy Award nomination for directing for his work on The Cardinal (1963); he was also nominated for producing Anatomy of a Murder.

“A Centennial Tribute to Otto Preminger” will be hosted by director, author and Preminger friend Peter Bogdanovich, and will include a selection of film clips and comments from Preminger’s colleagues and family.

Tickets for the event and for each screening are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. Tickets are available at the Academy during regular business hours, by mail (HTML or PDF format), or on the nights of the screenings, if still available. Please note, we do not take phone reservations or any credit cards. If ordering by mail, please remember to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope along with your personal check made out to THE ACADEMY FOUNDATION. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the event and at 6 p.m. for the screenings. All seating is unreserved.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The Linwood Dun Theater is located at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. For more program information, please call (310) 247-3600.