Oscars to add ‘best popular film’ award

Los Angeles : Organizers of the Oscars -- under fire for plummeting ratings and accused of elitism -- on Wednesday announced the creation of a new category to honour top blockbusters and said they would shorten the ceremony to attract more viewers. “Change is coming to the Oscars,” tweeted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has traditionally put together the glittering awards gala each year in late February or early March.

Earlier this year, the 90th Oscars on March 4 lasted nearly four hours, and posted all-time low television ratings with 26.5 million viewers. For 2019, organizers are hoping to produce a “more accessible” three-hour show -- by presenting some of the awards during commercial breaks, Academy president John Bailey and chief executive officer Dawn Hudson told members.

Edited excerpts of those presentations will then be shown during the broadcast. They will also create a new award for “outstanding achievement in popular film” -- a response to accusations that for the past decade or more, Academy has honoured arthouse fare only seen by limited audiences. The Academy did not offer specifics about how the category will be defined. The final reform will be to hold the ceremony earlier in the calendar year -- in 2020, it will shift to February 9. In 2019, the date already set -- February 24 -- will be maintained.