Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced a new distributor for the Academy Awards: Beginning in 2029, the Oscars are coming to YouTube. Now, on the film festival circuit, AMPAS execs are explaining the rationale behind the strategic switch-up.
AMPAS President Bill Kramer appeared on a Zurich Film Festival panel that also included Backrooms director Kane Parsons (who reaches 3.6 million subscribers on his KanePixels YouTube channel). Kramer explained that the Oscars’ move to YouTube is meant to reverse the ceremony’s declining ratings. “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,” Kramer said.
The large audience Kramer spoke of doesn’t just consist of TV screen viewers. On YouTube Shorts, film clip channels have pulled in millions of weekly views by sharing Hollywood magic with fans around the world. Kramer wants those viewers to tune into the Oscars, and YouTube is the easiest place for them to do it. “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.
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Then there is the matter of YouTube’s creator community. Kramer spent plenty of time gassing up co-panelist Parsons, who delivered one of the biggest box office hits of 2026 in the form of Backrooms. The success of a film that began a series of creepypastas turns YouTube subscribers into film aficionados. “Your fandom traveled from YouTube to the theaters,” Kramer said. “YouTube can inform a theatrical fandom.”
When you add up all of those trends, an Oscars broadcast on YouTube becomes a no-brainer. “It almost feels risky not to do it,” Kramer said.
But the Academy’s new deal for the Oscars isn’t a one-way street. It also gives YouTube more credibility as the platform tries to position its creators as top-tier artists who are on par with traditional studios and directors. After making a fervent push to earn Emmy consideration, YouTube now has its sights set on the Oscars.
“Obsession and Backrooms were [from] YouTubers,” said YouTube’s European head, Pedro Pina, at an IberSeries session in Madrid. “They were tremendously successful this year and I would expect to see more and more of these examples in the Emmys and Oscars in the next years.”
Broadcasting the Oscars on YouTube could turn out to be a win-win, especially if AMPAS can coordinate exciting activations for its 2029 ceremony. “We’re already deep in discussions with Neal Mohan and his team,” Kramer said.
