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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Oct 06, 2010, 01:49 PM IST
Academy awards organisers are looking up to shift the 2012 Oscars ceremony from its current slot in late February up a month in a bid to boost TV ratings and reclaim some of its lustre.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is "ironing out the logistics" of moving the ceremony up to late January or early February as an earlier date could allow them to steal back some of the thunder from other award shows and boost TV ratings.
The date switch is yet to be approved by the Academy. A task force headed by Academy President Tom Sherak is figuring out if a date move is feasible, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"It is not a done deal yet. I think we would like to do it. Progress is being made, but we do not have it all right just yet," Sherak said.
This would not be the first time that the Academy shifts the date for the Oscars. In 2003 the ceremony was held in late March, and some past shows were in April.
The Oscars are held toward the end of a long award season. Academy officials fear that the TV audience, along with the nominees, are "burned out" by the time the Oscars are presented two months after the very last eligible films are released.
Next year, the Oscars will be presented on February 27. Other award ceremonies that will be held before the Oscars are the Critics' Choice Movie Awards on January 14, Golden Globe Awards on January 16, Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 30 and British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards on February 13.
The Academy assumes that even if the Oscars date changes, the award will still be the last movie award show because other award shows will move up in response. Still, even a few weeks could help the ceremony, organisers say.
"We still are the mother of all awards shows. But in today's world, everybody wants it now. People don't want to wait. You need to stay relevant," Sherak said.
Executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Bruce Davis said, "Some people feel it (Oscars) has lost some of its energy, and we are looking for energy."
