Film execs take top posts for Oscars

LOS ANGELES -- The group that oversees the Academy Awards is under new management.

Dawn Hudson, former head of a top independent-film organization, has been named chief executive officer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Longtime academy executive Ric Robertson was chosen as the group's chief operating officer.

It's a new management structure at the academy, with Hudson and Robertson teaming to replace retiring executive director Bruce Davis. Hudson and Robertson start their new jobs June 1.

Hudson spent 20 years as head of Film Independent, which oversees the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, held the night before the Oscars each year.

Robertson joined the academy in 1981 and was named second-in-command there in 1989.

Their appointments were approved by the academy's board of governors Thursday.