The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is steering the Oscars toward a worldwide audience, and CEO Bill Kramer says the 2020 best picture win for “Parasite” started it. Kramer spoke Wednesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he, Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor and chief membership officer Meredith Shea joined a panel moderated by festival director Takeo Hisamatsu. The festival gave Kramer its Global Cinema Leadership Special Award.
Kramer described the “Parasite” victory as “a pivot, a shift” in how the Academy thinks about international cinema at the Oscars. He said every category at the most recent ceremony included international representation, best picture among them. Membership numbers back up the claim. Kramer said the share of voting members living outside the United States has grown from about 5% to 25% in a decade. He tied that growth to a push for a more diverse and inclusive Academy. He said the old membership was smaller because the Academy was less global and looked less for excellence outside the U.S.
The next step involves distribution. YouTube holds exclusive global rights to the Oscars from 2029 through 2033, after ABC’s final telecast in 2028. Kramer said the ceremony will be free to 2.5 billion people in more than 30 languages, and he called the arrangement a deliberate move toward a bigger worldwide audience. The Academy is also adding a festival-qualifying pathway to nomination. The shift has detractors. The move off broadcast television follows years of scandal and falling viewership, and critics have asked what it means for the show. Kramer has said the Academy wanted the largest global audience possible.
Kramer made his case as the U.S. grows more isolationist under President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, a contrast that gives the Tokyo remarks extra weight. Howell Taylor said the Academy wants filmmakers to see an organization that welcomes all of them, not one centered on Los Angeles. The Academy has not said how it will measure success on YouTube.
