The Oscars Wants Focus on Celebrating Cinema This Year

The Oscars would like the focus to be back on the movies during this year’s ceremony. Newly minted chief executive Bill Kramer spoke at a conference last week and explained how The Academy wanted to continue its rebound. Variety heard his comments about moving past Chris Rock and Will Smith’s drama. That incident still gets brought up by people on social media. Smith’s actions definitely overshadowed the event. But, the media fervor around that moment has stretched over the months. (It’s the most anyone has talked about The Oscars outside of awards season in literal years.) All publicity might not be good publicity though. Kramer would seem to agree with that statement. By shifting the focus back to the movies themselves, you might succeed in driving the viewership up even further. Check out what the executive had to say about the future of the telecast down below.

“We want to move forward and have an Oscars that celebrates cinema,” Kramer said. “That’s our focus right now. It’s really about moving forward. We definitely want a host. A host is very important to us. We are committed to having a host on the show this year, and we are already looking at some key partners on that.”

“It’s our 95th anniversary, we want to return to a show that has reverence for film and 95 years of the Oscars. It’s a moment to really reflect on our membership, all craft areas, our changing industry, our fans,” Kramer said. “There are ways to do that, that are entertaining and authentic, and that are tied to our mission to honor excellence in movie making.”

In looking for ways to celebrate movie making, there are other economic realities that have to be faced up. ABC has been a partner of The Oscars for a while now. Every year, it feels like they’re trying something different than the one before with the format. Last year, despite hemming and hawing from media sources and fans online, the event delivered a 60 percent increase in ratings. Now, that was up from the lowest-rated outing in the show’s history. But, it signaled that maybe the audience for these award shows hasn’t completely dried up yet.

“We have been talking to ABC about all aspects of the show,” Kramer added. “We want to see all disciplines equitably acknowledged on the show, that is our goal. There are many ways to do that, and we’re working that through with ABC right now.”

Who do you think should host The Oscars this year? Let us know down in the comments!