Oscar Coming Sooner!

**David Vasser** · 5th August 2002, 12:16 PM

In a move that might effect films released very late in the year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has officially announced that they are moving the awards ceremony to February beginning in the year 2004. This could possibly impact LOTR-RETURN OF THE KING which would be out around Christmas 2003.

THE NEW YORK TIMES TODAY 08-05-2002: "This is the plan: In 2004, the Academy Awards will be at the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard on Feb. 29, about five weeks after the Oscar nominations are unveiled in the last week of January. To make this happen, nomination ballots will have to go out very early in January, and academy voters will have a somewhat shorter time to see any of the movies they may have missed and to cast their ballots. (Exactly how long they will have remains uncertain, as the academy has not yet finalized its full Oscar calendar for 2004.)"

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lisaleslie76 · 6th August 2002, 11:00 AM

I think it's very stupid of them to move the oscars from March to February starting 2004.

**Joakim Lundberg** · 7th August 2002, 10:49 AM

The negative point would be that it would be a big rush for the academy members to see all the films.

**Susan Pitcher** · 7th August 2002, 06:15 PM

That, and the fact that the studios saturate the market every winter because they apparently feel moviegoers and critics don't have the capacity to remember what came out more than two months ago.

Some of the studios, if they're smart, will release their films earlier and better so the late issues won't matter anyway (at least not the awful ones). There are too many movies coming out in November and December as it is; if some come out in September and October and they're good, maybe the trend toward awarding Oscars to films that get forgotten two years later will change. Just a thought.

Jumjalum · 23rd August 2002, 02:02 AM

It seems they're moving the oscars because the BAFTAs moved to just before the oscars usual spot, and are now televised in America, so they stole a lot of the thunder. Rightly so, the BAFTAs didn't shamefully ignore FOTR in any of the big categories :furious: