Academy CEO Bill Kramer doubles down on YouTube move: "you'll see a very different-looking Oscars" Kramer said at the Zurich Film Festival Summit on Saturday afternoon that bringing Hollywood's biggest night to YouTube "gives the Academy more control in engaging with film lovers." September 26, 2026 5:42am Does AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer feel as though they're taking a risk by moving the awards ceremony to YouTube in 2029? "It almost feels risky not to do it," said Kramer at the Zurich Film Festival Summit event on Saturday afternoon. In a talk titled "The Theatrical Box Office Resurgence! How to Get Audiences' Attention in the Era of Social Media and Online Platforms?", Kramer was joined by Backrooms filmmaker Kane Parsons, president and chief content officer at Mattel, Robbie Brenner, and co-president at Sony Pictures Classics, Michael Barker. Following Kramer's keynote speech at the Swiss summit, he doubled down on taking the Oscars - which has aired on ABC in the U.S. since 1976 - to YouTube, in a deal that will bring the film industry's biggest night to millions more people, translated into 30 different languages, for free. He told the room: "As we become more global as an organization, the best way for us to reach a global audience of film lovers, film fans, [and] young artists is YouTube. I think the timing this year - Obsession, Backrooms, you and Curry [Barker]," he said, talking to Parsons. "[It's] moving in the other direction from YouTube to theatrical for us; we're an organization that celebrates theatrical filmmaking, but at the same time, the Oscars is a television show, and we want to reach a large audience." YouTube allows the Academy to directly engage with their audience and film fans in a way that "we just can't do right now," continued Kramer. "It gives the Academy more control in engaging with fandom and film lovers and film fans and viewers of the Oscars. Right now more people outside of the U.S. watch the Oscars than in the U.S., and this allows us to capture that audience a lot more," he said. When probed by Deadline's Andreas Wiseman if he believes the deal to be risky, Kramer said: "Not at all. It almost feels risky to not do it because we're looking at the future, and the deal starts in [20]29, so that's our 101st Oscars. And with each month, a larger percentage of the TV-watching audience is on YouTube, and those numbers are increasing. So I don't think it's a risk. We have a great partnership with Disney right now. I have to say they've been amazing partners and will continue to be for the next two years. But we're already deep in discussions with [YouTube CEO] Neal Mohan and his team, so I think you'll see a very different-looking Oscars that allows you to engage with the show in more interactive and deep ways than we can do right now." He responded when Wiseman asked if the deal was lucrative: "It was a good deal." As part of the deal, YouTube will broadcast not only the Oscars ceremony itself - which generated $150 million in revenue for the Academy from 2024 to 2025, the vast majority via the TV rights deal with Disney - but also a significant amount of related content. Also coming to YouTube: red carpet pre-show and behind-the-scenes in-show content; the Oscar nominations announcement; the Governors Awards, at which the Academy presents honorary Oscars and occasionally the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award; the Oscars Nominees Luncheon; the Student Academy Awards ceremony; the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony; Academy member and filmmaker interviews; film education programs; podcasts and more. The TV audience for the 2026 Oscars declined, drawing 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, based on Nielsen's big data plus panel ratings. That's down about 9 percent from 2025's Oscars, which drew 19.69 million viewers for a post-pandemic high, and the smallest audience for the awards since 2022, when 16.68 million people watched. The 22nd Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24-Oct. 4.

Bill Blass' archive heads to auction at Christie's this September, and other news. Plus, The Academy's film archive building to undergo a major renovation, and Kuala Lumpur's contemporary art scene grows. Bill Blass' archive heads to auction at Christie's this September. Christie's will present "Bill Blass: American Elegance," an exhibition and auction honoring the designer who helped define American style and dressed figures including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Gloria Vanderbilt. The auction runs September 9-23, with a preview at Christie's New York September 8-13 and a full exhibition at Blass' former town house September 18-22. In total, 129 pieces will be presented, including vintage garments, fashion sketches, and personal letters, among them correspondence from Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Geoffrey Beene, and Diane Vreeland. Christie's estimates the sale will realize more than $150,000, with proceeds benefiting the Bill Blass company. Notable lots include a plaid suit matching one Nancy Reagan wore deplaning Air Force One in 1988 (est. $800-$1,200) and a Michael Vollbracht for Bill Blass gown worn by Beyoncé for InStyle (est. $3,000-$5,000). The sale coincides with New York Fashion Week and America's 250th anniversary celebrations, with Christie's calling it a tribute to one of American fashion's foundational figures. Bergdorf Goodman honors Michael Kors' 45-year legacy on Fifth Avenue. Bergdorf Goodman has unveiled a Fifth Avenue window installation marking Michael Kors' 45th anniversary, celebrating the arrival of the designer's Fall/Winter 2026 collection. The display draws its atmosphere from the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, where the runway show was staged, featuring red velvet curtains and monumental portraits of Broadway stars Lea Michele, Audra McDonald, and Judith Light alongside key looks from the collection. The milestone carries a special resonance for Kors, whose relationship with Bergdorf Goodman dates back to the origin of his career. While working at a boutique across from the store on 57th Street, Kors was approached by then-fashion director Dawn Mello, an encounter that led him to sketch his first collection, which Bergdorf Goodman purchased in 1981. The Academy's film archive building to undergo a major renovation this fall. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will begin a three-year renovation of its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study this fall. The Hollywood building, acquired by the Academy in 2000 and opened in 2002, houses much of the organization's film archive and is attached to the 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theatre and event space. The project, expected to wrap by the end of 2029, aims to restore and modernize the facility, including constructing additional collection vaults, improving existing ones, upgrading climate control and mechanical systems, enhancing lighting, and installing new roofing. The Linwood Dunn Theatre and event space are not expected to be affected. Kuala Lumpur's contemporary art scene grows with the ART KL launch. Kuala Lumpur is getting a new contemporary art platform. ART KL, debuting October 15-18, will spotlight emerging Southeast Asian artists at A Place Where (APW), a converted printing factory turned "lifestyle campus" that's also serving as the fair's venue sponsor. The initiative comes from a partnership between Richard Koh Art Advisory and consultancy firm Art Anonymous. Ten galleries from across the region have signed on, including Kuala Lumpur's Galeri Sasha, Singapore's Intersections, Jakarta's ISA Art Gallery, Bangkok's Warin Lab Contemporary, and Zhan Art | Space in Petaling Jaya, each mounting solo or duo presentations. Eight Malaysian artists, among them Farhan Rizuwan, Samantha Lee, and Wong Perng Fey, will contribute site-specific installations. Founder Richard Koh framed the launch as a bid to strengthen ties across the region's art ecosystem, bringing artists, galleries, collectors, and curators into closer contact. Painter Mary Heilmann, who reshaped abstraction with warmth, dies at 86. Mary Heilmann spent more than five decades proving that abstraction could be warm, funny, and deeply human, a body of work that reshaped how a generation understood painting. She died at 86, but the joy embedded in her canvases, layered with gestural underpainting and playful geometric overpainting, remains her lasting signature. Shaped by Bay Area surf culture and the Beat ethos of her youth, Heilmann arrived in New York in 1968 chasing sculpture and Minimalism, only to find her true voice in painting. Some of her career highlights include major exhibitions at the Whitney, Whitechapel Gallery, and a long-term installation at Dia Beacon. Her paintings now live permanently in the collections of MoMA, and the National Gallery of Art. Attractive Distractions: Barbie's latest collector doll channels Marilyn Monroe's iconic pink gown. In Japan's Hokuriku region, Pico Iyer finds an escape from Kyoto's crowds. Fernando Romero's Mexico City house is part terrarium, part sacred space. An ancient fragment of Homer's Odyssey returns to public view at the Met.