Cheryl Boone Isaacs, immediate Past President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS or the Academy - The Oscars) will be the Special Honored Guest Speaker at this year’s CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival to be April 12-15, 2018 in Bellingham, WA. Boone Isaacs will attend a special program on Friday, April 13, 2018, in the Whatcom Museum’s Rotunda Room in the Old City Hall, 121 Prospect Street, Bellingham, WA. The program will be free and open to the public with a ticketed Happy Hour Reception to precede the program.
Boone Isaacs is the Academy's first African-American and third female president of the 90-year organization, having served since being elected in July 2013. She is a film marketing and public relations executive and has represented the public relations branch of the Academy best known for the Academy Awards (The Oscars). Boone Isaacs has also served on the Academy’s Board of Governors for more than two decades.
As a Special Honored Guest of the Festival, Boone Isaacs will share her behind-the-scenes experiences as a public relations and marketing director for major motion pictures and as Academy President with her personal reflections about women, African Americans and power in the American and international film industry.
Boone Isaacs has long been recognized by the film industry as an advocate for women and people of color in Hollywood. As she told ABC News upon announcing in May 2017 that she’d be stepping down as Academy President, the global film community is “one that is becoming more inclusive and diverse with each passing day" and that the 2017 Oscars were “proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith. The power of art is that it transcends all these things.”
In addition to her Academy duties, Boone Isaacs has had a successful and illustrious career as a marketing executive for major motion pictures, including First Wives Club, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The Right Stuff, The King’s Speech and The Artist, to mention but a few.
Additional details about the event on April 13, 2018 will be available on the CASCADIA website and Facebook page as it gets closer to the festival. Tickets for the Happy Hour with Boone Isaacs will be $50, which includes appetizers, beer and wine, reserved program seating, and a $25 donation to CASCADIA.
The second annual CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival will be held at Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, WA April 12-15, 2018. The 2018 Official Selection of 26 exceptional films directed by women was announced Friday, February 16, 2018, with film trailers and descriptions on the CASCADIA site and Facebook page as well as via Twitter and Instagram (@CASCADIAIWFF).
