The Academy Awards are moving forward as planned despite recent speculation suggesting the ceremony might face disruption due to the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.
A report had surfaced claiming that the prestigious event could be cancelled for the first time in its 96-year history. However, sources from the Academy have confirmed that the Oscars will indeed take place on March 2.
British tabloid The Sun reported last week that a ‘contingency strategy’ was being considered, with high-profile figures such as Tom Hanks, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg involved in discussions about potentially cancelling the ceremony.
However, sources from the Academy assert that no such advisory committee exists, and the Oscars are not in jeopardy.
The Academy extended the window for nominations, with the final list of nominees to be announced on January 23.
The Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, maintaining its long-standing tradition despite the challenges posed by the wildfires.
Amid the chaos of the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, some in the media are spreading baseless rumours suggesting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is seriously considering cancelling the 97th Oscars ceremony, which is scheduled to take place in Hollywood on Sunday, March 2.
The U.K. tabloid newspaper The Sun posted a story to its website on Tuesday evening, which was picked up by the Drudge Report and went viral, that it advertised as “Exclusive” and headlined: “OSCARS THREAT Oscars 2025 on verge of being cancelled as bosses secretly plot major changes to ceremony after LA wildfires.”
The piece went on to claim that “A secret ‘contingency strategy’ is in place for the March 3rd Awards to be called off” — getting the date wrong — and elaborated, “The Oscars awards ceremony is on the verge of being cancelled for the first time in its 96-year history… Official Academy Award committees are monitoring the situation daily, led by stars including Tom Hanks, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg.”
Reported sources have spoken with senior figures at the Academy, as well as individuals close to some of the aforementioned A-listers, and categorically deny any such plan or advisory committee.
The only body currently weighing how the Academy should proceed is the organisation’s 55-person board of governors, which currently includes none of the individuals listed by The Sun, and the most recent determination of which — announced on Monday — is that the date of the Oscars ceremony, now 47 days away, will not be shifting.
The board — which includes four individuals who lost their homes in the fires — did, however, extend the Oscar nominations voting window; push back the announcement of the Oscar nominations; cancel this year’s Oscar Nominees Luncheon; and postpone the Scientific and Technical Awards.
Any change to the Oscars ceremony itself would require significant consultation between the Academy and its longtime broadcasting partner, ABC.
And it is currently the prevailing sentiment within the leadership of the Academy and ABC that the show should go on — in a dignified manner that would help to raise funds for and celebrate fire relief efforts.
A handful of high-profile industry figures who are members of the Academy have raised questions about the propriety of proceeding.
Hacks star Jean Smart suggested that televised award shows should be cancelled and their backers should donate “the revenue they would have gathered to the victims of the fires and the firefighters,” while writer Stephen King declared that he won’t vote for this year’s Oscars: “No glitz with Los Angeles on fire.”
But both received considerable pushback from others in the business, which has been reeling in the aftermath of COVID and strikes.
Moreover, the Oscars ceremony, for which about 1,000 locals are employed, has never been “cancelled” — not during World War II, or even during the darkest days of COVID, during which it was held in a pared-down manner.
And again, there is currently no internal momentum to cancel the edition slated for March 2.
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