Bad News Delivered After Oscars
While the hashtag "OscarsSoBroke" isn't quite trending yet, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is embarking on a global fundraising effort.
On Friday, a $500 million fundraising campaign was initiated with the ambitious aim of reaching the target by the 2028 Oscars, marking the centenary celebration of the Academy Awards.
This development follows closely on the heels of the generally lackluster reception of the 2024 Oscars.
Despite the Academy officials emphasizing its global aspirations in launching this initiative, it coincides with a period of declining TV viewership for the annual awards show, as reported by Agence-France Presse on Barron's.
With the Academy's contract with ABC for broadcasting the show up for renewal, it faces the challenge of dwindling ratings compared to previous years. For instance, this year's viewership amounted to approximately 21 million, down from about 40 million viewers a decade ago.
The fundraising campaign, dubbed Academy 100, is positioned as a "global revenue diversification and outreach campaign," according to Deadline.
"The future of the Academy is global, and Academy 100 will deepen our worldwide reach and impact," stated Academy CEO Bill Kramer. “The Academy will soon enter its second century, and we want to ensure that we continue to be the preeminent leader of our international film community. Like all healthy organizations, the Academy needs a sustainable and diverse base of support, and we are deeply grateful to Rolex and all of our partners for helping us launch this important and forward-looking initiative.”
The Academy has already secured commitments for over $100 million from sponsors, including Rolex and Delta Air Lines.
This funding will be utilized to “endow and fund programs that recognize excellence in cinematic artistry and innovation; preserve our film history; enable the creation of world-class film exhibitions, screenings, and publications; train and educate the next generation of diverse global film artists; and produce powerful digital content.”
The event, held in Rome, aimed to underscore the Academy's global mission in its campaign, as highlighted by the Associated Press.
In her analysis for USA Today, Kelly Lawler remarked on the 2024 show, stating, “The Oscar broadcast didn’t feel like anybody’s biggest night. It felt small, unimportant, skippable. It didn’t get anywhere close to the urgency or relevancy of the nominated films.”
Lawler criticized the broadcast, noting that “90 percent of Sunday’s broadcast could have happened at any Oscars (or really, any awards show) any year. The gently jabbing jokes, the expected winners, the overlong and overwritten bits, the dull speeches − they are so generic as to be soporific.”
While some may prefer a dull Oscars to a disastrous one, Lawler suggested that as viewership declines, there's a need to put in more effort to entice people to tune in on Sunday nights to watch the spectacle of the rich and famous bestowing golden trophies upon each other.
"This is Hollywood, after all. These people are supposed to know how to put on a show. Otherwise, why are we watching?” she concluded.