Oscars permanent rule change: Academy cancels all in-person member screenings

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it would no longer host screenings of films that are nominated for Oscars. The Academy, which organises the Oscar awards each year, announced in the Academy Bulletin in January, which was emailed to members in January. However, the decision began to be noticed in recent days after certain members raised a protest against the decision and asked others to join in.

A report in The Hollywood Reporter stated that the decision came after a lacklustre response to most screenings.

Why does the Academy screen films?

For years, the Academy has been known to screen Oscar-hopefuls for its members throughout the year in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and London, and then again after the announcement of the Oscar nominations. The films are screened in order for the members to be aware of the films in contention that year and also for them to vote once the nominations are announced.

However, in recent years, the attendance at all these screenings has declined drastically.

The last seven years, especially, have seen the sharp drop after the Academy introduced its members-only streaming service, the Academy Screening Room, through which members can watch films at home.

According to the Academy, the turnout is particularly low at the post-nomination screenings. “An average of five members attended these screenings in the last two years,” the organisation asserted in its missive to members, which reportedly cost the organisation thousands of dollars a pop. So the Academy decided to save resources by cancelling the screenings altogether. (Agencies)

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