Microsoft and Apple have both joined the Academy Software Foundation, a group designed to promote the use of open source in Hollywood. Both companies joined the foundation at the premier membership level, which helps it to surpass $1 million in annual funding.
“Filmmakers everywhere use Apple products,” said Academy Software Foundation executive director David Morin in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome Apple as a new member, and we look forward to working with them to ensure that our open source projects run well on Apple software platforms.”
In addition to becoming a premier member, Microsoft is also joining the foundation’s governing board and technical advisory council.
“At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and it’s this mission that drives our commitment to open source,” said Microsoft Azure Storage, Media and Edge corporate vice president Tad Brockway. “We’re excited to become a member of the Academy Software Foundation and work together with the industry’s open source community to bring the latest cloud technologies to the Foundation and its projects.”
The Academy Software foundation launched a little over a year ago as a joint project of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation. The group’s work includes spearheading open source projects like OpenTimelineIO, an open source tool initially developed at Pixar that has been used for movies like “Coco,” “Incredibles 2,” and “Toy Story 4.”
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In addition to Apple and Microsoft, the foundation’s members include Netflix, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dreamworks Animation, Unreal, Google Cloud, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Red Hat, Warner Bros and the Visual Effects Society, among others.
