BREAKING NEWS!… EXCLUSIVE… 2ND UPDATE: Latest news is that it’s more likely to be the plan for 2012. But outside chance it could be for the next Oscars. Also, Academy executive director Bruce Davis sent out an email scolding AMPAS board members for leaking to me. Hah!
UPDATED: I’ve just learned that, at tonight’s Board of Governors meeting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, members discussed moving up the 2011 Oscars to sometime in January. You read that right — JANUARY! This would be a shocking change, not just because the ABC telecast of the 83rd Academy Awards would conflict with (or is it more like outfox?) NBC’s competing Golden Globes broadcast. And bump up against the Super Bowl. But it would leap in front of the SAG awards January 30th and the BAFTA awards February 13th and also steal their thunder. It also would condense the awards campaigning for the already chaotic (and I think idiotic) Top 10 Best Picture nominations period, as well as dramatically alter the way studios are timing the release of their movies.
But the moguls see potential plusses. “The awards season is too long currently. This will shorten and reduce the amount of campaigning,” one studio head told me tonight. “Also, it will make the Oscars the definitive awards show again. The Globes can’t move a lot earlier as all the movies wouldn’t be released yet. “The only potential downside is how do people see all the films in time to vote for nominations?”
That’s exactly why this seems nuts. With so many films coming out those last days of December, it leaves even less time for AMPAS members to see the movies they’ll nominate. It also means the studios will have to get DVD screeners into voters’ hands that much sooner, which would only make the piracy risks that much greater. Most of the AMPAS members I know watch the potential nominees over the December 25-January 1 holiday. That won’t be possible.
However, tonight’s Academy board discussion would explain why AMPAS President Tom Sherak is moving so quickly to lock down the Academy Awards producers, director, and soon-to-be host. (83rd Oscar Telecast Producers Announced). The Oscars already moved up from March to February. This would make them earlier still. That’s going to take massive coordination and cooperation. Yet, from a logistical standpoint, no institution utilizes technology less than AMPAS or its voters, too many of whom still don’t have electronic mail. “There’s a ZERO percent chance that the Executive team can figure out how to logistically coordinate voting that soon, especially with all the old people who don’t do electronic mail,” one of my sources says. “And especially because [executive director] Bruce Davis won’t do anything that utilizes technology.”
Personally, I love it. Everyone hates waiting till March.
What’s the shocker? The Academy Awards always used to be in January. They used to be on Mondays too. Only in the last few years have they been later.
I can’t tell you how many people don’t believe that it was a tradition to be on Monday due to the fact that was the lowest patronage night for movie theaters.
It was even on a few Thursday nights when ABC had some bad ratings on Thursdays for a couple of years.
Are you kidding me? The Oscars have never been held in January. The ceremony either has been in February, March or April since 1934.
N, the real reason is financial. Cut the amount of spending on campaigns, get the theatre filled earlier than later, money in the bank sooner, as box office is fading, this is the fastest method to keep first run entertainment in the eyes and pocket books of the public. They already know this will be the hardest year for films in the 10 best category competition, kid comic book franchise films will dominate 60% of category, actors in quasi live action animates will compete against actors in stronger roles. Enough said, let the replies begin.
Move it to the North Pole, too, after moving it to January.
Clever.
Funniest comment on here in a long time.
what about sweeps??? Wouldn’t the academy and the networks loose money??
Who agreed the 10 nominee system was idiotic? I certainly didn’t. In fact, even exclusively in terms of ratings and/or business, most have agreed it was a wise decision. Sounds to me like you’re just looking for another excuse to bash the Academy.
From a relevance standpoint, the move makes complete sense. In the internet age, after January, the prior years’ movies are very old news. Motion picture “best of” lists are now all done in December (if not late November).
i agree that by the time the Academy Awards happens I have forgotten the movies. I thought the show has been a little late in the year. I am pretty tired of watching awards shows by then. I get tired of the celebrities congradulating themselves over and over. Pathetic for the stars to always be praising eachother. Geez.
I can’t imagine how they would be able to do this for 2011 at this late date. Sure would make January jam packed for awards.
Well this is a dumb idea.
I think it’d work, but they NEED to go back to just 5 nominees. Especially lately, with Hollywood churning out such garbage. I mean really, will there even be 10 movies worth of nomination this year? There will likely be a slew of quality indies like always, but we all know how much they hate nominating them because it “hurts the ratings because no one has ever heard of them”. :p
From what I’ve seen so far this year, they’ll be lucky to find five films that deserve a best picture nomination
You’ve seen a great film this year? Do tell! Okay, I haven’t seen WINTER’S BONE yet, but I prefer my porn to be shot in sunny locales.
I just don’t like that the Oscars come so late in the season and seem to be almost cookie cutter repeats of the Globes. Very few surprises after the Globes go out. So, yeah, from a general audience POV, doing them earlier makes more sense. But its a big party night for adults in America, so not TOO close to the holidays, please.
The Academy finally admitting the Oscars really have nothing to do with the films at all? Yup. If they really cared about the films and not just the damn show they’d postpone this change until 2012 so that everyone can adjust properly.
I like the change because as is, several studios release their ‘Best Picture’ contenders in limited release on December 31st so that the films don’t even hit wide release until the nominations are announced. The fact that nominations are released and your average moviegoer sees that he or she has to go out and see 10 new movies before the broadcast is off-putting.
Plus, giving some of these movies a chance to bomb in wide release will improve the nominees. Take last year for instance. Leading up to December, ‘Nine’, ‘The Lovely Bones’ and ‘Invictus’ were all thought to be locks for Best Picture nominations. Then all three bombed in theatres while ‘Avatar’ took everyone by surprise.
Not to mention that with all of the campaigning that goes on these days and the small awards shows leading up to the big night, there’s no suspense anymore. How many people who actually follow Awards season didn’t know that the big wins would be THL/Bigelow/Bridges/Bullock/Waltz/Mo’Nique the day nominations were announced.
New awards schedule.
November 25: Golden Globe Awards (Nominations October 19)
December 12: Screen Actor Guild Awards (Nominations November 4)
December 19: Independent Spirit Awards (Nominations November 11)
January 30: Academy Awards (Nominations December 6)
Seriously, all studios just moved the release date for “Oscar Worthy Films” to mid to late October.
BTW: November 25 is Thanksgiving while the rest of the award dates are Sundays.
Thanksgiving is for football. No way any awards show would try to compete with that.
Yes Thanksgiving is for football, but this is NBC we are talking about. They can advertise the Golden Globes during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which is a tradition as well as during the dog show and make the Golden Globes a tradition wrapping up the day with a start time at 8 PM Eastern time. It is the perfect way to unwind from a big day, retailers will flock to the show because the following day is Black Friday or as I call it (rushing into Wal-Mart while tripping on everyone else day), and finally the Globes keep their title of being one of the first shows of awards season.
it’ll be in february again in 2011 if this plan doesn’t go through. it was only in march this year b/c producers didnt want to compete w/ the olympics
I do agree that all of the other awards programs steal Oscar’s thunder — more so than their spasmodic habit of awarding ‘okay’ films with the Best Picture Oscar.
I don’t know how they could possibly pull it off, for all the reasons stated, but I get the instinct. As it stands now, by the time the show is on, it’s too late to help the very films the Oscars are supposed to help promote, at least through their theatrical runs. It’s just a factor of the brevity of a film’s theatrical window in 2010. But for this to work, Academy members would have to receive the films well in advance of release, which brings up a whole other set of problems. Seems unlikely. But I get it.
It’s a move to take back the awards by the studios.
Shorten the screening and voting time and the smaller indy films get less viewers and voters and the majors win an award even if they have to rig the game to do it.
All this for Employee of the Year awards…
Since the screener age began, I saw no reason for the Academy to wait until March for the Oscars.
Great idea. Game changer!
FEARLESS PREDICTIONS/CHANGES THAT WILL OCCUR BY 2020…
1) they will change the name from THE OSCARS to THE FRANKS.
2) nominees will be abolished entirely.
3) the award itself will be HOT PINK.
4) casual attire for all.
5) new host every 7 minutes.
best comment ever.
I second SB’s post as the best ever.
March was too late. January is too soon. They should do it in mid February. Like 10 or 15. Bafta may move whatever she wants to :)
But it’s not the Time they should change in the first place. They should took all those categories like Best Documentary Feature, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Short Film, Best Documentary, Best Short Film OUT of the main event. No one cares about them. No one saw that Shorts. No one cares about the people who take them and give another boring speech.
They take so much time from the main event. And by the time they get to the Best Director and Movie people are so tired they just turn it off. Move them to some Pre-show like in Grammys. And Top-10 is too much. I agree. But top-5 is small. They should do top-7. Or top-8.
The oscars are an industry award show with the bonus of being a ratings getter thanks to the celebrity factor and some mainstream movies. To suggest all those categories should be taken out of the main event is bullshit. The guy who does the sound mixing has contributed to the film’s execution just as much as the other people involved. And although people don’t want to hear *any* award recipient give a long and boring acceptance speech, you’re very wrong when you say when it comes to the others who work on films, “no one care about them.” There are other ways to improve the show without boiling the awards down to just actors, writers, producers, and directors.
Take out the categories and you take out the stars. Anyone thought this through? That may shorten the show but it will also shorten the list of stars participating. And the show’s problem is not the number of categories. The Oscarcast in the past has deftly handle more awards in a shorter time with unlimited speeches (see 1967, 39th year, when they had TWO categories, black & white, and color, for each of the technical awards and the show ran 2 and half hours).
So the real question is, does ABC want a shorter show? The reality is no. The longer the show, the more commercials it can sell at one of the highest prices of the season. If your a network without a Superbowl, it is the highest price of season for you.
AMPAS unceremoniously dumped the honorary awards onto their website (where they don’t belong) and was the show any better for it? I don’t think so. The real culprit is the time devoted to commercials that has increased dramatically in the last 2 decades. That’s where your misplaced annoyance should be focused on.
You and many people forget this is an awards show to celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of the artists who have honed their crafts throughout their lifetime. The fact that this has been turned into an entertainment show for the masses has only contributed to diluting its true objective. Thats why its called the “Academy Awards” as in “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” NOT “Academy of a few categories the masses are selectively interested in”.
If you are not interested in “hearing another boring speech” by a “category you don’t care about” then guess what? We’re not interested in YOUR BORING LIFE in which you are sitting in front of your TV expecting to vicariously “be entertained” by the categories of your choosing. Some of us work hard our entire lives, striving towards excellence in order to be able to stand at that podium. So you’re bored? Boo-hoo. Too bad it didn’t happen to you, but you’ll be OK. We don’t care, you bought our movie ticket, you were were entertained now change the channel.
WHAT THE ACADEMY SHOULD REAAAAAAAAAALY CHANGE:
I’m LOOKING FORWARD to a change in the BEST ACTRESS category.
Let’s stop the hypocrisy, ladies, and just give you an Oscar for ‘BEST ACTOR’ – since that’s what you prefer to call yourselves these days. I’d love to see “Best actor in a film: Male” and “Best Actor in a film: Female”. LET’S HAVE THE ACADEMY REMOVE THE WORD “ACTRESS” FROM ANY MENTION ON THE SHOW. That’s what the Board of the Academy “fix”.
And just think how all the female actors would LUV this change!
The whole idea of an “Awards Season” is ridiculous and, as anyone knows who has been through it, unnecessarily exhausting. With all the countless Awards shows between the Golden Globes and the Oscars in February/March, by the time you get to the Academy Award show there are practically no surprises about who the winners will be. So why watch? The only film award that really matters is the Oscar and by moving up the date of the show it will help restore its relevance.
And what is wrong with forcing Academy members to actually go to the theaters to watch movies versus watching them on DVD? An academy membership allows them to go to theaters for a free viewing and free screenings are always scheduled by studios and at the Academy. Until Harvey Weinstein started this practice, it was the only way members were able to see films. At first, DVD viewing helped the independent film have an opportunity to be seen, but it ultimately helped to increase piracy. This is the “movie” business, not tv business, and being an Academy member is a privilege — so why not take the responsibility of selecting nominees and winners seriously by going to see the actual films in contention?
Of course, this could potentially force other shows to move up their show dates as any show that would try to air after the Oscars would be irrelevant. Or maybe it could (mercifully) kill off all those other shows. One could only dare to dream.
I hate this idea. I like seeing the films before the Oscars but I live in a city where the limited releases are barely even here if at all. I had to use netflix to see the Hurt Locker.