Hysteria Over ‘Canceled’ Oscars Shot Down by Academy

The Oscars are not canceled and there are no plans to move the March 2 event despite the devastation of the California wildfires, according to senior members of the Academy, who shut down a viral tabloid story about the show’s supposed cancelation from The Sun.

The Sun posted the story Tuesday with the headline, “Oscars 2025 on verge of being cancelled as bosses secretly plot major changes to ceremony after LA wildfires,” and added an “exclusive” banner for good measure. Trade mag The Hollywood Reporter delved into the Sun’s claims from anonymous “sources” the same day, however, and deemed to story to be “baseless.”

The Sun reported that “Official Academy Award committees are monitoring the situation daily” to determine whether a cancellation would happen, and noted these committees were “led by stars including Tom Hanks, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg.” THR clarified with its own reporting that the “only body currently weighing how the Academy should proceed is the organization’s 55-person board of governors, which currently includes none of the individuals listed by The Sun.”

There have been some changes made to the awards season schedule in response to the California fires. As determined by its governing board, four of whom have lost their homes in the fire, the Oscar nominations voting window has been extended, while the big nomination announcement has been pushed back from Jan. 17 to Jan, 23. The annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon event has been scrapped altogether.

The Sun’s story picked up steam it was picked up by Drudge Report, and comes after some have called for awards season to be canceled in the fires' wake.

Hacks actress Jean Smart took to Instagram last week to call on networks “to seriously consider not televising” awards shows and “donate the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and firefighters.” Commentators pointed out that without an Oscars ceremony, there would be no ad revenue to donate.

The chatter had become enough of a “Hot Topic” that it reached The View, where the hosts weighed in during Tuesday’s episode. “There are some people that may want to see some joy and some light and that sort of thing,” co-host Sunny Hostin said, while Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed that the awards should go forward “as long as there’s a charitable component.”

Plans to raise funds with the event seem to already be in motion. A statement from Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang to THR suggests the 97th Academy Awards will serve as a “telethon of sorts” for victims and responders to the fires.