Kevin Hart In Talks To Join Kevin James In ‘Valet … 
Anthony Hopkins Up For ‘Red 2′ Villain; Can … 
Cannes Conflicted Over ‘The Paperboy’ As … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Posts … 
Ghost Of 2004 Hovers Over L.A. Screenings As Int’l … 
On The Road To Awards Season? Kerouac Book Finally Makes It … 
Michael Bay’s Name Pushed Paramount To Settle Injured … 
Several More New Series In Recasting Mode; Returning Ones … 
‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Moving To March 2013 To … 
Directors Fortnight Says It Must “Police … 
‘Chronicle’ Helmer Josh Trank Takes On … 
Big Media Chiefs Tell Cable Operators To Speed Up ‘TV … 
Will ‘Pan Am’ Take Flight With Amazon? 
EMMYS: Showtime Launches Free Weekend Promotion Targeting … 
TOLDJA! ICM Management Buyout Complete 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’, … 
An Olympian Effort: NBCUni Plans 5,535 Hours Of Coverage … 
Netflix Exec Denies It’s Responsible For Nickelodeon … 
DESPERATE: HuffPo & Oprah Team Up Now 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Great Gatsby’ 
How Did Women Pilot Writers Fare For 2012? 
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.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
I understand moving the dates. Jump to the front of the line and try to reclaim the crown.
I do not understand the fact that the Academy doesn’t use electronic communications.
Require them to get updated and stream the damned movies to them. The cost of installing the hardware at the geezers’ homes would be tiny compared to the mailing and piracy. If the geezer hasn’t watched it they don’t get to vote in that category.
*geezer being a term of annoyance, not affection, for those who are old enough to know better, but act like a spoiled 5 year old.
The members of the Board are picked by a crazy system that obscures notions like who wants to serve and who can serve, and is limited to those in Los Angeles – even though there is no way to determine who lives in Los Angeles, It is a way a few people – usually marketing types, not artist types – can manipulate the bureaucracy. Note that they never poll the members, they don’t want any part of the membership actually being heard. Like a lot of things in the arts, a few people are taking the helm and running an established entity intot he ground by inflating its value or by changing it’s identity. A shame. Poll the members.
THIS IS INSANE!!!!!!!!!! JANUARY??????? People are just getting over the financial shock of the holidays and ushering in a new year—PEOPLE WON’T CARE!!! Well, I hope the Board accepts the fact that ratings will be at their all-time LOW if they pull that off!
THIS IS INSANE – they should be moving the show later — back to MARCH — certainly not earlier — unless they are intent on completely ruining the integrity of the show just so that they can be the first awards show — they won’t be considered the premiere awards show == they will become the after thought as all these other awards shows will follow it. STUPID STUPID MOVE. no one will get to see the nominated films, people just nominate and vote for whatever film everyone else votes for and no surprises in the nominations. with everyone scrambling last year at the last minute because of putting the order of 10 nominees last year, you would think the academy would take that into consideration. I hope this does not pass.
Maybe the studios would start putting there Oscar worthy films in November or even October instead of cramming them into the last two weeks of December. Wow – what a concept! I think it is a great move!
Do we have to go through this every year? Lookit: The Oscarcast is an industrial commercial for movies. The more time that chat show twinkies give to discussing who might get an Oscar, the better it is for theatrical, DVD, and VOD sales. The Golden Globes are merely a pimple on Hollywood’s ass; you want to eviscerate them, just stop letting them have film clips, and stop citing them in the display ads. Gone. Check please.
The Oscars are what the Oscars are. It is essential to keep all the awards on TV; the below-the-line craftspeople are what make a Hollywood movie a Hollywood movie. By the reasoning of some people here, why not just televise the athletes who hit the winning runs or score goals on TV and cut out the rest of the team?
Another alternative is to move ‘em back to the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt, announce the winners in advance but make everybody show up anyway, script the speeches, and use them to drive a wedge between labor and management (which was the original purpose of the Academy anyway).
Me, I’d crawl over broken glass to be there. Just sign me –
You know, this helps out TOY STORY 3′s chances for a Best Picture win.
From a marketing perspective, the current schedule allows audience to build excitement to Oscars. The spread gives the industry time to design and promote/advertise the event(s). Jamming them all together in january gives audience less to look forward to. They will become a blur and viewership will plummet. stop thinking industry — think audience.
slow down and think this one through.
that would be great for the industry’s credibility now they can’t just shove out the quality movies at the last minuet having them being released in later summer. Also it would keep more movies like Avatar, big budget movies lacking substance, at bay.
Let’s be even more competitive with the globes and consider making it dinner again. The Oscars always attracts a woeful number of stars. Although I understand that you can’t invite 5000 people to a catered dinner – they should turn the flow of the Kodak into what the Globes do at the Hilton. Then you’ll get all kinds of stars who love a party atmosphere more than sitting stiff-backed in an auditorium for 3 hours. You can also take the money you spend on the Governors ball and put it into the Oscar dinner. Touché
It’s really not going to be “sometime in January.” If it’s moved it’ll go to Jan 30th so as not to compete with NFL Playoffs. This would put it against the Pro Bowl, which isn’t a ratings juggernaut, though it does provide a viable option for the male audience to turn to instead of the Oscars (The Super Bowl for Women!) and may effect ratings. Most optimal time is still probably 2 weeks after the Super Bowl (such as it was in 2009 I believe). This would allow for a bit of a breather after post-Super Bowl exhaustion as well as give them 2 weeks of ramp up time where they’re not competing with the Super Bowl/playoffs for airtime on various news/event shows and sites.
I love the idea of the awards moving to January. It seems fitting since this is the ultimate award anyway. It shouldn’t be the culmination of the awards season–it should be what kicks it off. Besides, it’s too long to wait until March and the awards always seem so anti-climactic because (usually) the same movies win all the awards all season long. So, this will increase the telecast ratings.
It’s all about the money, and the Academy has been facing the reality that it cannot generate Super Bowl spot rates anymore.
What is more interesting is that the Board of Governors represents all the individual crafts. What happens to all their award shows and the much needed revenue generated from them?
And, the logistics of getting all this in place in the November to December window is virtually impossible.
Carl Icahn has a better chance of gaining control of Lionsgate than the Academy has of moving the Oscars to early January.
That being said, I do agree that the current awards cycle is far too long, and some reasonable compromise should be considered which will not cripple all the other awards shows just to protect the Academy television revenue.
Maybe now, Sundance won’t be so crowded with Hollywood types and all the crap swag they bring with them. If hosting the Oscars in January gets the swag hags to leave town earlier, fine by me!
This will be the final nail in the trade papers’ coffin(s).
Good for the Academy. Move the Oscars to January. It would render the useless SAG awards and Golden Globes obsolete. With all the stars showing up at the earlier awards, by the time the Oscars come around it becomes stale. How many times can one listen to Sandra Bullock give the same acceptance speech?
Also, this would prevent studios from dumping good films like The Last Station into theaters in NY and LA on Dec. 30 and then the film gets can’t build an audience because it opens wide in the dog days of early January.
Someone is using their noodle over there at the Academy. Not for nothing else, nothing would give me more pleasure than to see the end of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Why not have the Academy voters complete their ballots online? Keep it secure, let the computer tally the votes immediately, have your results a LOT quicker. You could close nominations by Jan 5 (so they can watch during the Christmas/New Year break), have noms ready by Jan 8, vote by Jan 15 and broadcast by Superbowl.
When is AMPAS going to join the 21st century?
The problem is that the Oscars would collide with the NFL postseason, unless they’re held the week between the AFC/NFC championships and the Super Bowl (I wouldn’t be surprised if that gap is shrunk sometime in the future from two weeks to one).
Also, ABC’s affiliates will “scream bloody murder” that the Oscars are no longer (in most years; 2010 was an exception) broadcast druing the February “sweeps”.
I recall there were times in the 1970′s when the Academy Awards were held in early April!
The current February date for the ceremony is better than January (for the reason outlined above) or March (too late in the season).
With Barbara Walters no longer doing an Oscar-night special, here is what ABC should do for Oscar night 2011, regardless of whether the ceremony is held in January, February, March or even early April:
(1) Have any afternoon network sports (or other) programming end at 5 P.M. ET (2 P.M. PT) that day.
(2) Have local stations (in the East) air local news from 5 to 5:30 ET. ABC’s West Coast stations would have a half-hour to themselves from 2 to 2:30; perhaps some might run a local Oscar preview with film critics from newspapers in their areas.
(3) Run the Sunday edition of “World News Tonight” from 5:30 to 6 EDT (on the West Coast, either at 2:30-3 PT, or perhaps after the Oscar-night coverage with an updated edition); perhaps convincing Diane Sawyer to come in that Sunday to plug her anchoring of the weeknight editions.
(4) Broadcast an expanded “Red Carpet Show” from 6 to 7:30 P.M. ET (3 to 4:30 P.M. PT).
(5) The Awards show itself would run from 7:30 to about 10:30-11 P.M. ET (4:30 to between 7:30-8 PT).
(6) From the tinme the Oscar show ends until 11:30 P.M. ET (8:30 PT), broadfcast a “post-show” with live interviews of winners and analysis from film critics as to whether the right stars and films won.
This doesn’t make sense for a simple reason: in an era of declining viewership for the Oscars, it can’t possibly help ratings to put the Academy Awards on a football postseason weekend. Unless you schedule it for the last Saturday in Jan.? Otherwise, the telecast is competing directly with the wild card, division or conference playoffs. I know a lot of people in the entertainment industry aren’t sports-oriented, but ABC can’t want to go up against the playoffs. It’s ratings suicide.
This would be great if it meant that studios wouldn’t release every single adult drama during the Christmas holidays. Hollywood always claims women don’t go to movies, then they release every movie adult women want to see at exactly the moment they’re busiest with kids and family obligations and can’t go to the theater.
Release the Oscar-bait movies in October, and see if you don’t have bigger box office and more audience interest in the Oscars. The current system is designed to serve the industry, not the customers.
First off, if you don’t have friggin’ e mail or as it is referred to here, “electronic mail”
LOL than you have no business commenting or judging contemporary film.
The whole process should be streamlined, with films streaming for Acad members so they can sit home and watch them on their 55″ or larger screens or in their screening rooms via downloadable, watermarked dvds.
It’s like the Supremes…get the geezers outta there! THEN you’ll see vital change in the Biz.
TOY STORY 3=definite BP nom
Let’s face it, the Oscars will attract a very large audience, regardless of when it is aired. But do we really want to watch a very WET Red Carpet arrival in January, one of the wettest months in Southern California?
Do you have any idea how many charitable events are tied to the Oscars? This would cut down on contributions as people are broke after Xmas. I have worked on an Academy Award Gala that benefits developmentally disabled adults for years…this is a major fundraiser and I don’t think a change of date would help at all!!!