A Four-Hour Oscars Broadcast Should Be The New Normal

Given the long-overdue announcement that the Oscars will finally be honoring stunts in 2028 with the Academy Award for Achievement in Stunt Design, it's time for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to come to grips with a stark reality that the institution has desperately tried to avoid for years: The Oscars needs to be four hours long.

We've been yelling about how we need a Stunt Oscar for almost a decade, and I'm thrilled that low rumble grew to a roar the Academy could no longer ignore. And last year, the organization announced the addition of another new category for the first time since 2002, honoring the art of casting. For those keeping track at home, that's two new categories in two years — which, for movie lovers, is wonderful news. It's always great to see professionals being rewarded for their hard work on Hollywood's biggest night.

The problem, though, is that ABC, the TV home of the Oscars, doesn't particularly like it when the show runs long. The network has tried a variety of ways to keep the runtimes shorter over the years, including bumping key categories to be awarded during commercial breaks before ultimately backtracking on making that decision permanent after an outcry in the film community. But by adding these two new categories, there's no way around it: The Oscars ceremony is going to be super long, and the organizers of the event need to embrace that instead of fight it.

Technically, the Academy hasn't yet promised that the Stunt Design Oscar will be handed out during the televised broadcast, although the benefits of doing so would help the goal of boosting viewership; popular movies like "John Wick" or "Mission: Impossible" that would otherwise not earn any nominations, could snag a nom for that category, and potentially lure in some viewers who might not otherwise have been interested. But assuming Stunts and Casting both make it into the final broadcast, that means there should be 25 trophies to hand out at the 2028 Academy Awards.

My fear is that ABC will decide to bump the short film categories out of the broadcast to make room and treat those like the scientific and technical awards, which aren't televised and are often only briefly mentioned in the main broadcast. But folks, that would suck. I know the filmmakers behind those shorts aren't recognizable and can sometimes stumble their way through their acceptance speeches. I know audiences might be impatient to catch a glimpse of an actor, director, or movie they actually care about. I know the knock against the shorts is typically that they're all dark and depressing. But this is the biggest night in movies we're talking about! Those nominees deserve to be there. The filmmakers have reached a peak of their profession, and in some ways, they serve as a stand-in for the audience; by seeing them on the world stage, we imagine what it must be like for regular folks to rub shoulders with titans of the industry. It's Hollywood wish fulfillment at its best.

(The Oscars contract with ABC expires after the 2028 ceremony, so it's possible this could only be a problem we'd have to contend with for one year. Then again, whoever picks up the rights could feel the same way as ABC.)

I would personally love to see the Oscars fully embrace a ridiculously long runtime and make the ceremony feel like an even bigger event than it already does. Don't punish any other categories just because there are two shiny new ones coming up. Use the 2025 ceremony as a template (It was long, but still finished before 11 pm ET! Keep the obnoxious bits out of the show! Make it clear that you actually love this art form!), premiere new trailers during the broadcast, and generally use the platform to get audiences excited about movies past, present, and future. Enough dancing around trying to shave off a few minutes here and there. Embrace the chaos, and let your movie-loving freak flag fly.

We spoke a little about the Stunt Oscar announcement on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast:

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