Do Awards Ceremonies Still Matter? Film Academy and BAFTA Heads Discuss Their “Important Place in the Ecosystem”

With viewing figures for awards shows largely in decline and less than half of what they were at their peak, the importance of such ceremonies has been called into question in recent years.

Perhaps understandably, the heads of the two organizations who put on the biggest award shows in the film world have put up a solid defense about the value of the ceremonies and the awards themselves.

Speaking at a special industry conversation on the second day of the BFI London Film Festival, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer and BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip were asked by moderator Ben Roberts, chief exec of the British Film Institute, if awards and awards shows still mattered.

“I think they matter greatly — they’re aspirational,” said Kramer. “There are people at home in Illinois watching who say, ‘now editing, this looks interesting. I can be an editor.’ There a way of elevating the work of filmmaking across disciplines in a very public way.”

The Film Academy head added it was “no longer” about just the night itself. “There’s a long tail to these shows that I think really elevates the work of our filmmaking community in an incredibly powerful way. And I think it’s our responsibility to produce shows that honor that.”

Millichip, who noted that she’d been in the role exactly one year and three days, said that awards shows helped drive traffic to movie theaters, claiming that “two-thirds” of the viewers of 2023 BAFTA ceremony’s BBC broadcast said that it made them “more keen” to go to the cinema to watch a film.

“So I think that awards have an important place in the ecosystem. And the inspiration aspect is really important to BAFTA.”

As for the importance of awards as part of a studio’s marketing and distribution strategy, both academy bosses claimed that, despite changing viewing and engagement patterns from audiences, nothing had changed.

“For studios and distributors, everyone wants an Oscar. That remains and I don’t see that slowing down,” said Kramer.

Millichip noted that BAFTA had recently tightened its film campaigning rules to “ensure there was equanimity” in the process. “But other than that, I would hope we’re still very important to the distributors.”