LOS ANGELES – A Conan O’Brien without filters, a K-pop conquest on stage and absolutely no awards for Tilly Norwood.
This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is “leaning into big cultural moments,” in the words of CEO Bill Kramer.
Sunday’s Oscars ceremony comes during a period of transition for the academy, which recently signed a groundbreaking deal with YouTube and is grappling, like the rest of the world, with the impact of AI.
Kramer and academy president Lynette Howell Taylor said in a recent interview with NBC News that they are aware of the challenges facing the Oscars in an ever-changing media landscape and in a year in which often bleak headlines have dominated the news cycle.
“Everyone is constantly aware of what’s happening outside the Dolby Theatre, what’s happening around the world,” Howell Taylor said. But, he emphasized, “tonight is about elevating artists and celebrating filmmakers.”
The academy, a nonprofit organization of film professionals, derives the vast majority of its revenue from broadcast rights to the awards show. That means the Oscars have an increasingly difficult task: They have to attract and entertain viewers tuning in from 225 countries around the world, as well as the eager entertainment industry crowd seated at the 3,400-seat Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
The 2025 Oscars, which O’Brien also hosted, drew 19.7 million viewers in the United States, a five-year high. Critics praised O’Brien, who is not overtly political when it comes to his humor, for his “goofiness and enthusiasm.”
He returns to the stage Sunday after trying out some of his Oscar night jokes in clubs around Los Angeles. It’s unclear whether it will address topics like the war in Iran, which has disrupted daily lives for many, or the looming Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition deal, which is expected to change the future of the industry.
Howell Taylor and Kramer said they did not ask O’Brien to keep politics or any other topics out of his monologue.
“We give him a lot of creative freedom and he never disappoints,” Kramer said.
Beyond hiring O’Brien to return as emcee, the academy has also recruited artists from Netflix’s “Kpop Demon Hunters” and Warner Bros. “Sinners” will offer live performances of nominated songs from the hit films.
The In Memoriam segment, which is usually one of the most discussed and debated parts of the show, is expected to be filled with industry giants who died in the last 12 months. The list includes Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall and Rob Reiner, to name just a few.
In recent years, the academy has included an online gallery to complement the faces featured in the broadcast, something it will do again this year.
“There’s an incredible sensitivity around that piece of the program,” Howell Taylor said of planning In Memoriam. “The biggest challenge is that there is simply not enough time to include everyone in the on-air segment.”
And although the 98th awards have yet to be aired, the academy and its executives are already looking ahead to future ceremonies and how to keep people interested.
In December, the organization signed a deal to move the Oscars broadcast to YouTube starting in 2029, after what will have been a more than 50-year run on ABC.
Moving the Oscars to the Google-owned platform will allow for new types of interaction with the broadcast, such as second-screen experiences like commentary or audience polls, Kramer said.
“What we were looking for was a deal that was both domestic and international and that would reach the largest global audience possible,” Kramer said.
Artificial intelligence, which has been a flashpoint among Hollywood creatives, has also been a topic of conversation between the academy and its members.
After last year’s Oscars, the academy added language about artificial intelligence to its rules, saying that a film’s use of artificial intelligence and digital tools “will neither help nor hurt” its nomination chances.
“It was important to point out that AI is a tool, and across all disciplines in academia, people are using this tool,” Kramer said. “However, it must be used ethically and there must be human authorship. Over time we will have to make a decision about what it means for awards on a larger scale, and that is something we will continue to discuss.”
Anything you are sure of? A synthetic performer, like the controversial artificial intelligence actor Tilly Norwood, will never be eligible for an Oscar.
“An Oscar is given to a human being,” Howell Taylor said, “and that’s something that will remain.”
