The business of moving the Oscar noms announcement

Today in Variety, I have a piece on how the ongoing creep of the Oscars nomination reveal is affecting the film business itself. Here's how it begins:

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences pushed the key milestones for Oscar nominations to their earliest dates ever, it didn't merely force Hollywood to recalibrate its vacation plans.

The Acad continued a trend of changing the economics of the film industry, merely by its awards scheduling.

In 2003, nominations for the March 23 Oscar ceremony were set for Feb. 11. In 2012, with the kudos in late February, Oscar noms were announced Jan. 24. This time around, Oscar noms will be revealed Jan. 10, an evolution that has affected everything from the importance of various film festivals and critics groups to the fate of the movies themselves.

At the most high-stakes level, the early dates have intensified the risk-reward riddle of an Oscar campaign. A nominated film will have 45 days to bask in the publicity-filled glow of its nomination before the Feb. 24 Academy Awards, the longest period this century and 12 days more than the year before.

"If you're in the business of distributing movies solely at the end of the year to get awards recognition, because without it they're not going anywhere, then you'll benefit if you're nominated, because you'll make more money in those (extra) two weekends than you would otherwise," one kudos consultant says. ...

Read the entire piece here, then check out the rest of the stories in our special section, Awards Season Launch: The Best Picture Race.

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