In what has got to seem like one of the dumbest potential decisions by the Academy since, well, last year when they went from 5 Best Picture noms to 10, there’s talk of a telecast switch from March to, wait for it, January. [Deadline Hollywood]
The reasoning apparently being too much time to campaign.
Only a decade ago, the Academy Awards were annually held at the end of March rather than the beginning. It’s only been getting earlier and earlier since. What doesn’t make sense is that more “awards” films come out in December now than ever have, the summer usually packed with tentpoles and the fall and early winter reserved for smaller films. With DVD sales down and so on, it gets harder and harder for smaller films to find a second life after the theater, a la Crash.
So more campaigning is eminently necessary for the Hurt Lockers of the world. But then it doesn’t seem like this decision is for those “little film that could” movies, does it? Much like last year’s 10 nominations decision, it feel geared towards the Blind Sides, i.e. those crowd-pleasers that once were regularly nominated for Best Picture but now get lost in the fray of independent cinema. The problem with that is that indie films don’t make money, meaning less people will watch the awards show.
All of this to say it appears that Hollywood continues to do everything it can to make “better” movies, aside from, you know, making better movies.
What do you think of this potential switch?