50 years ago this summer, Steven Spielberg‘s now-classic adventure film “Jaws” opened and changed American cinema forever. The movie’s commercial success is credited with (or blamed for, depending on your perspective) inaugurating the summer blockbuster era, and its style and narrative structure influenced several generations of young filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino has referred to it as the greatest movie ever made, Steven Soderbergh is so obsessed with it that he’s working on a book about its making, and Jordan Peele‘s “Nope” is unimaginable without “Jaws” as a reference point.
Now, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is preparing one of its most ambitious exhibits to date in honor of “Jaws” turning 50. As announced on this year’s Oscars, “Jaws: The Exhibition” will feature over 200 artifacts including concept illustrations by production designer Joe Alves, a costume worn by Roy Scheider as Brody, original shark design schematics by design engineer Frank Wurmser, and props like one of the dorsal fins used to terrify millions of viewers. It will not only be the largest mounted exhibition ever for “Jaws,” but the Academy Museum’s most expansive exhibition ever devoted exclusively to a single film.
“Jaws: The Exhibition” will join the sole surviving full-scale model of the shark from “Jaws” that has been part of the museum’s collection since its opening in 2021; at 25-feet-long, “Bruce the Shark” is the largest object in the Academy’s collection and currently hangs outside of the museum’s 4th floor exhibition space, where it will remain on-view during the exhibition. The exhibition will not only include rare objects and documents from Steven Spielberg, The Amblin Hearth Archive, NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, and other sources, but will also feature “interactive moments” and be accompanied by a series of film screenings to be announced at a later date.
“Jaws: The Exhibition” opens to the public on September 14, 2025. Tickets are now available at the Academy Museum’s website.
