Why does Stephen King think the 2025 Oscars should be cancelled?

The wildfires currently raging in Los Angeles, California, have caused unprecedented devastation since they first erupted on January 7, 2025. Just over a week later, Cal Fire website So far, she says, 24 people have died, 40,660 acres have burned, and more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed. The city’s residents are both shocked and mourning, as they face an uncertain future of rebuilding and more disasters – because these fires have not yet been fully contained, and new ones could break out at any moment.

And in the midst of all this, the film industry, which has been home to the city for more than a century, wearily trudges forward. Films need to be produced, released and promoted to ensure that this terrible start is not exacerbated into 2025 by a significant drop in box office. It’s a terrible necessity. But is the Oscars a necessity?

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards next Thursday (they were initially scheduled to be revealed tomorrow), it will be hard for anyone to rejoice in a major personal accomplishment when so many colleagues are relying on GoFundMes to give them a little boost. When they begin the long road of rebuilding. Given the unpredictability of these fires, it is impossible to know where we will be day to day, so it is possible that, if the situation continues as is or, God forbid, gets worse, AMPAS will abandon celebrity-hosted ads and reveal all nominees via a statement. Journalist.

No matter what happens, there will be those who say the Oscars, scheduled for March 2, should be cancelled. It’s an option that many people have been quietly discussing over the past week, and it’s now been made a priority by Stephen King.

On Wednesday, King, a member of the academy, Taken to Bluesky To express his opposition to holding the Oscars this year. “I will not vote at the Oscars this year,” King wrote. “IMHO they should cancel it. There’s no glamor with LA on fire.”

King’s point is well taken, and he wouldn’t be alone in stating this, but there is a potential financial downside to canceling the Oscars entirely. Movies like “Matter” “Sing Sing” and “Hard Truths” and “Nickel Boys” They’re hoping for increased visibility as well as an uptick in business (there are re-releases of several contenders planned over the next few weeks), all of which will be wiped out if AMPAS chooses to go without ceremony or do away with voting altogether. I don’t know how this will play out, but it’s a dilemma. The film industry will face it even after/if the wildfires are contained. Who wants to wear a tux and feel smug on the Oscars red carpet when so many friends lost everything just two months ago?

The argument for holding the Oscars this year will likely rest on the fact that they were able to hold a ceremony in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic while major hospitals in major cities were loading bodies into cryogenic containment units. The show must go on, right? maybe. It will be interesting to see how Hollywood reacts over the next couple of months.