15+ Suggestions For AMPAS Reform, 2024 Edition

See what happens with a little brainstorm over breakfast?!

you have to plant the seeds somewhere, right?

AMPAS is perhaps our nation’s greatest institution for the advocacy of the cultural industry and art form of cinema. And yeah, with great power comes great responsibility. So…..

Just as you, dear friend, can never stop learning, AMPAS can never stop trying to improve. Sure they have a constant series of forest fires to douse, but that whack-a-mole game needs to be aligned with the constant effort of forever reaching higher. Personally, I want a world where there is an endless supply of suggestion boxes, and a mandate to promptly read them and respond.

I want to give kudos in that regard to Bill Kramer and Janet Yang , AMPAS’s fearless leaders, as they have consistently responded promptly and thoughtfully when I have written on a direct matter or concern about the organization. But this post is not that.

This post is more of a brainstorm or an idea dump, one that I hope generates more ideas from you. I am showing mine, so what do you have up your sleeve? Throw something down that we can all pick up. That’s the challenge. And I will lead with these fifteen-ish — they are the result of two morning coffee sessions, with one of my favorite conversationists… me! They are not truly prioritized. And it is more of a starter list.

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Ted’s 15+ Suggestions For AMPAS Reform, 2024

1. Mandate Award Campaign Financing Transparency : I used to, first and foremost, feel that AMPAS Award Campaign Finance Reform was needed — a level playing field for all participants. Julien from Atelier Format shifted my thinking a bit, highlighting the vast number of folks in our field who depend on the Awards- based -Industrial-Complex for their livelihood.

   Although, I still am drawn to the concept that if we can do better with less we should, I don’t want more people to lose their gigs, so how can we level the playing field without sinking the boat? I think if voters had access to what was the spend on all campaigns, it might influence their voting a bit. Why not make it public? There is no doubt that studios and streaming platforms use their capital in ways that are give them an unfair competitive advantage. Let the voters decide on whether that might influence them.

   But perhaps that’s just a bandaid. Maybe it does need finance reform. To some degree the way it is now we almost reward the campaign. Or the home team. The good people employed in the Awards field would have to find a new gig, but those new gigs are still out there, aren’t they?