News: Oscar 2012

     I know it's a bit early to be discussing the 2012 (or really 2011) Oscars yet, we did get our first morsel of news yesterday regarding this year's Academy Award show. There had been speculation that the Academy would try to move the show up another month (yet again), to try to add some spice to the show by quickening the pace of the awards season, but this turned out not to be the case. Academy president Tom Sherak confirmed the following Oscar schedule:


Dec. 1, 2011   Official screen credits forms due
Dec. 27, 2011 Nomination ballots mailed
Jan. 13, 2012 Nominations ballots due by 5 p.m. PT
Jan. 24, 2012 Nominations announced at 5:40 a.m. PT
Feb. 1, 2012 Final ballots mailed
Feb. 6, 2012 Nominees luncheon
Feb. 11, 2012 Scientific and technical awards
Feb. 21, 2012 Final ballots due by 5 p.m. PT
Feb. 26, 2012 Academy Awards at 5:30 p.m. PT

In other words, we'll be having a show in late February again. While I personally would like to see some more surprises in the awards show (at least in the major categories, the winners having been painfully predictable), the only way this would be possible is if the Academy was able to circumvent the multitude of preceding award shows, many of which have a heavy crossover with the body of the Academy. Had the Academy moved everything up a month, no doubt all the other award shows would have followed suit (they become absolutely meaningless if their not precursors to the Big Rodeo), so unless the Academy can think of some way to banish all other movie award ceremonies (save the Golden Globes maybe, which do differ from the Academy quite often), it doesn't really matter when the awards are held. They won't get anymore exciting.