![Photo of Oscars trophy. - [The Conmunity - Pop Culture Geek / Flickr]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2018/8/5/660x290/b_502x220x82/photo-of-oscars-trophy-image-credit-the-conmunity-pop-culture-geek-flickr_2072039.jpg "Photo of Oscars trophy. - [The Conmunity - Pop Culture Geek / Flickr]")
The Oscars are a television show catered to celebrities, actors, and directors specifically, to receive awards for the films they have crafted and created. All the hard work and dedication pays off with a televised Academy Awards show. The next show will be the 90th in its history. The Academy will be making yet another change by adding a new film category, but they will also be shortening the telecast and moving up the date of the Oscars on the calendar to early February.
The new category
An article by Comic Book gives details about what the new category will be and what it means for the future.
According to the article, the change will "open the door for more widely popular movies to get recognized, including superhero films." Superhero films tend to not get the recognition they deserve at the awards show. Along with this, the article states what the name of the new category will be Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film. The news was announced earlier today (August 8) by Academy President John Bailey, in a letter, and news of the changes have been posted on both Twitter and Facebook.
The Academy is hoping that this new category will give films more recognition that are popular with the fans, rather than just the critics. The article gives examples of superhero films like "Black Panther," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Deadpool 2," which recently released a new cut, that could receive award nominations in categories other than Best Picture.
Other changes
An article by The Washington Post indicates other changes to the show include a shorter telecast and the show airing earlier than expected. Fans and other people have complained about the show in the past, calling them too long and boring at many parts. Limiting the length of the show could help out in that respect.
The show will be limited to just three hours and the show planned for 2020 will be "bumped up two weeks to Feb. 9." John Bailey talked about the upcoming changes, saying that they took the fans advice and all other criticism. They are also hoping that this will help out the ratings, which have been down. A change on Imax scheduler also sees an earlier release for the next Avengers' film interestingly.
Low ratings a cause for change
According to Comic Book, ratings have been down for the Oscars as "The last Oscars brought in 26.5 million viewers, which is down from the 32.9 million viewers the Oscars brought in the year before." Some changes need to be made for the sake of it. Politics being cast into the mix for the show could have hurt the ratings, among other things, like it is boring and too long of a show. We will have to see if these changes from the Academy make any difference.
