Motion Picture Academy Museum taking shape on Miracle Mile

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- One night a year, the Oscars celebrate every aspect of the film industry.

The Motion Picture Academy Museum, set to open on Miracle Mile in 2019, is being constructed to cover the rest of the year.

"It's about time. We are the moviemaking capital of the world and we've never had this museum here. We finally will," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Project backers are raising $388 million. Billionaire Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl gave a $50 million gift which has helped the museum raise 75 percent of its funds.

The project is taking shape and curators are busy plotting the inside, collecting Hollywood memorabilia.

"There's going to be a permanent exhibition which will weave together the moving image with the actual objects we have in the collection. And also it will be immersive. You will feel like you're back in time in certain areas, that you're actually seeing how movies got made," said Kerry Brougher, the director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Eyewitness News took a tour of the construction site which will include two theaters, one holding 1,000 visitors and a restaurant. There will also be spaces for rotating exhibitions which could include a retrospective on a director. There will also be an experience where guests can walk the red carpet and receive their very own Oscar.

The celebrated architectural structure, the May Company building at Fairfax and Wilshire, will be renamed the Saban building. Its exterior will mostly remain the same as it's looked since being built in 1939.

"It's good for our economy because that's visitors and jobs. It's good for our soul because we remember where we came from and how we grew up and it's great for our kids who I think can come in their own town to see how stories are made," Garcetti said.