Oscar 2024: The Hollywood Academy modifies the rule to choose the best film

The Hollywood Academy announced this Wednesday a new requirement for those productions that decide to apply in the category of best film for the 97th edition of the oscarscheduled for March 10, 2024.

Until today, it was enough for the contending films to have had a broadcast circuit that was limited to one week of exhibition in one of the six main cities in the United States, according to their managers in a statement.

However, from now on, the films must have been screened for another 7 days, consecutive or not, in 10 of the 50 most important cities in the United States, a maximum of 45 days after the initial release. Likewise, projecting outside the US will compute how to do it in two of these markets.

This extension of the exhibition period in theaters, which does not affect other sections of the competition, must have been completed by January 24, 2024 at the latest.

“We hope that this modification will increase the visibility of the films around the world and encourage the public to experience our art in cinemas”assured the executive director of the Academy, Bill Kramer, and its president, Janet Yang, after this decision approved by the 54 members of the board of governors.

Through this change, the Academy tries to counteract the specific weight of “streaming” platforms such as Netflix, Amazon or Apple, which are working in many cases as true showcases for contending films with little projection in movie theaters and, on occasions, , with a notable lack of interest from the public.

However, the new criteria could harm independent films with a lower budget, which will now have to fight to find a place in a context in which the films themselves produced by the platforms will play with the advantage of being able to invest more in their distribution.

Likewise, the modification serves to try to silence the criticism that continues to surround the Hollywood Academy after, last year, the interpreter Andrea Riseborough was nominated in the category of best actress with “To Leslie”, an “indie” production. that couldn’t even have been presented under that season’s criteria.

With information from EFE