EMPIRE CHATS EXCLUSIVELY WITH ACADEMY HEADS JANET YANG AND BILL KRAMER ABOUT THE AWARD SHOW’S FUTURE
#OSCARSSOWHITE. La La Land’s Best Picture mishap. The infamous slap. It’s safe to say it’s been a tumultuous decade for the Oscars, and the organisation behind the show, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It’s been the biggest awards ceremony in Hollywood for nearly a century, voted for by an almost 11,000strong membership of movie-makers, but those controversies and a major drop in viewers have raised big questions. How can the Academy get people watching again? In an ever-changing film industry, can the awards stay relevant? On a rainy Wednesday morning in Cannes, Empire met the people trying to find the answers —Academy President Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer.
Kramer isn’t new to the Academy — previously, he headed up the development of its Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in 2021. Yang made her name as a film producer, working on the likes of Steven Spielberg ’s Empire Of The Sun and American-Chinese classic The Joy Luck Club. Both stepped into their Academy roles in 2022, in the aftermath of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock live on stage. That incident was an undoubted low point, but also presented the incoming leaders with an opportunity. “In a way, it made it feel almost easier,” Yang says. “It propelled us to look at everything. What’s working ? What’s not? How can we improve?”
That approach was needed. The Oscars viewership has been declining since 2014, hitting a low of 10.4 million in 2021 during the pandemic. It’s been tentatively improving since, and the 2024 ceremony was an enjoyable return to form — “We really wanted to reset the tone to be more uplifting, and more celebratory,” says Yang —though it brought in only 19.5 million viewers, a 3.7 per cent increase from last year.
For Kramer and Yang, a key part of overhauling the Oscars is expanding their reach. With votes from a record 93 countries in 2024, it looks to be working. “Almost 25 per cent of our membership is non-US,” Kramer explains. “And that number’s growing. Inherent in that are more global nominees, submissions…” Yang picks up the sentence. “… More global awardees. You can see how, very quickly over the last couple of years, more international films gained prominence.” Parasite’s big win in 2020 stands out in that regard, and 2024 saw two international films in the Best Pictu
