With the advent of streaming services, many amazing films have been released on a multitude of streaming platforms, with the Academy Awards trying to find a proper way to recognize the quality. A suitable solution has been in place for a few years now, but the Academy announced changes to their stipulations, which will go into place for the 2024 season, Deadline reports. And the changes promise to be in the benefit of cinemas.
In the past, there have been streaming movies that have made their way to the Oscar’s, with Apple TV+’s Coda being the most noteworthy. The film won Best Picture after having just barely enough of a theatrical run, while Netlifx, in a similar case, sought success with All Quiet On The Western Front, but barley missed out on Best Picture.
The award for Best Picture is the only one to be seeing this change come 2024, and was approved by the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Now, on top of the film being released to a theater for at least a week in one of six U.S. cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami or Atlanta), there is more that a film must do for it to be considered for Best Picture. It must have an expanded theatrical run of 7 days in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after it’s release. For any late-in-the-year films, the distributors must submit a release plan to the academy, which must be completed by January 24th, 2025. A release to non-U.S. territories can count for up to 2 of the 10 markets. And lastly, qualifying non-U.S. markets include the top 15 international theater markets.
The President and CEO of National Association Of Theater Owners, Michael O’Leary, openly commended having nominees put up a much longer run in theaters, and said that “motion pictures must be experienced as intended: in a theater full of people, on a big screen, with state-of-the-art projection, sound and lighting.”
As well as the changes to the Best Picture category, the dates for the awards show itself is now released, along with other major award shows, thanks to Deadline. January 5th and 7th will see the AFI Awards and Golden Globes respectively, February 24th for the SAG Awards, with the Oscars shortlist December 21st, nominations January 23rd, and March 10th will see the 96th Academy Awards.