From Liverpool to the Oscars: Lynette Howell Taylor

As president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the organisation behind the Oscars - Lynette Howell Taylor has reached the pinnacle of her profession. 

Graduating from Management in 2000, Liverpool-born Lynette has produced over 25 films including A Star is Born, which was nominated for eight Oscars, and is founder of production company 51 Entertainment. 

In 2020 she co-produced the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, for which she was nominated for an Emmy, and in July last year was appointed as the Academy’s president. 

As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we spoke with Lynette to find out more about her role, memories of LIPA and the challenges facing the film industry. 

What's your favourite memory of your time at LIPA? 

My favourite memory from LIPA was the first time I was able to produce an independent musical. I collaborated with some of the Acting students and helped them put on a paired down production of Marry Me a Little from Sondheim. I raised the money through the fund that was set up at LIPA for this and recruited some of my fellow Management students to work on it with me. It was the first time I got to be an ‘independent producer’ - even though that's not what it was called back then. I loved the cross-discipline collaboration and the school was so well set up for that in its curriculum design. 

How has what you learnt at LIPA shaped your professional career? 

The entrepreneurial nature of the Enterprise Management course and the access to other students in other disciplines taught me about collaboration and building relationships early on with peers. This knowledge served me well as I entered into a career in entertainment. I realised that by creating projects with contemporaries was a great way to learn and grow together, rather than only looking for mentors and experienced professionals.   

What's your proudest professional moment?  

Being able to say I was from Liverpool live on the Oscars stage this year! 

What does being President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences entail? 

It is a full-time role, that focuses on the over 11,000 members worldwide and how to engage them with the organisation and represent their interests. Obviously, we are most known for the Oscars, and this is indeed a large part of my position, but we also have other awards including the Governors Awards, the Scientific and Technical Awards and the Student Academy Awards. We focus on educational programmes and support programmes for up-and-coming artists like the Gold Rising and Nicholls Fellowship and I work closely with our Academy Museum and Museum collection which has over 52 million items in it. The Academy is a diverse and global community of artists and executives who are all at the top of their field in their chosen disciplines.  

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the film industry over the next few years? 

The evolution of AI is going to have an impact not just on entertainment, but on humanity in general - it is already impacting entertainment and so the industry needs to tackle the challenges with job loss and protection of copyright. Media consolidation is another challenge we face, and of course our members around the world are incredibly impacted by the political climate in their own countries, which has an effect on the stories that are told and the right to freedom of expression and the right to tell those stories safely.