Douglas Edwards; Film Promoter, Exhibitor

Douglas Edwards, promoter and exhibitor of avant-garde films who for the last 13 years served as theater and special events administrator for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has died. He was 44.

Edwards died Tuesday at Hollywood Community Hospital of complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the academy said.

Edwards had produced more than 250 public events for the academy in Southern California and throughout the United States, including a nine-city tour of the restored 1954 film “A Star Is Born.” He also produced the four-day Olympiad of Animation as part of the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival and an all-star tribute to Myrna Loy at Carnegie Hall in New York.

At the time of his death, Edwards was working on the academy’s tribute to Johnny Green, scheduled for Feb. 10.

“Doug was absolutely central to the academy’s programming operations. He had an amazingly astute sense of topic selection and a sure touch in putting together evenings filled with warmth, humor and a sense of rediscovery,” said academy Executive Director Bruce Davis. “He produced for us some of the academy’s finest hours, evenings that many of us will never forget. Those of us who were fortunate to know him mourn the passing of a good and gentle human being.”

Prior to his work with the academy, Edwards administered film series at the Egg and the Eye from 1970 to 1973 and at Theater Vanguard from 1975 to 1978. He also headed the independent cinema showcase Encounter Cinema at UCLA’s Melnitz Hall and was guest director of the film department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Asked why he worked so hard to exhibit films that so few people attended, Edwards told the Los Angeles Times pragmatically: “If I don’t show them, I’m going to have a hard time seeing them.”

Edwards served as editor of the professional journal Media Arts from 1983 to 1990 and as national film critic and Los Angeles editor of the Advocate magazine for four years.

Born June 29, 1948, in Memphis, Tenn., Edwards studied architecture and design at UC Berkeley and film at UCLA.

He is survived by his mother, Manuelinez Wadginski of Memphis and his longtime companion, Gary Berkowitz.

Memorial donations can be made to AIDS Project Los Angeles.