With An Eye Toward 2028, Film Awards Face The Future
deadline.comIn the year 2525. No, that’s the lyric of a cheesy pop song about, as it were, Armageddon Time. It’s 2028, a much closer reckoning, that should be on the mind of everyone who depends on the shiny, mixed up business of film awards for diversion or a living.
The smart people who run the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are certainly thinking about it. In a little-noticed addendum to their recently released financial report for fiscal 2022, Academy officials disclosed that they had exercised an option to truncate their agreement to hold the annual Oscar show in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, shifting the final Dolby show from 2032 to 2028.
The move cost the financially stressed Academy $10 million in expected revenue, but was deemed worth it. Now, the awards ceremony can face its second century—that begins with the 2029 Oscars, God willing—in a fresh venue.
Bigger, smaller, indoor, outdoor, its own museum, Disneyland, who knows? Tellingly, the new Dolby contract termination date matches a scheduled expiration of the Academy’s domestic broadcast contract with Disney’s ABC.
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