{"id":135915,"date":"2025-10-21T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135915\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:19:10","slug":"at-the-academy-gala-old-hollywood-meets-the-creator-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135915\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Academy Gala, Old Hollywood Meets the Creator Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night was the fifth annual Academy Gala, the glamorous fundraising event that also serves as a de facto soft launch of Oscar season. At the Academy Museum cocktail party preceding it, the awards circuit still had its new-car smell; everyone seemed a little more excited to slip into their tuxedos and gravity-defying gowns (or, in the case of Kim Kardashian, a head-encompassing beige silk scarf).<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event also carried an element of nostalgia. Whether it\u2019s film festivals, conferences, or awards shows, all circuits are Groundhog Days where participants may get annoyed by repetition but are ultimately won over by community and familiarity. Same as it ever was \u2014 only now, when LA production continues to drop and jobs are scarce everywhere, it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\"Jafar<\/a> \"TELLURIDE,<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Academy knows it, too. It selected Amelia Dimoldenberg, creator of YouTube\u2019s \u201cChicken Shop Date,\u201d<\/a> as the night\u2019s emcee for the Academy\u2019s social interviews, where she spoke with the likes of Quinta Brunson, Charli XCX, Rachel Zegler, Jeff Goldblum, Jesse Eisenberg, and Anna Kendrick. She did a great job, tweaking the celebrities \u2014 some of whom have been on her YouTube show, or want to be. It\u2019s become a must-stop for promotional tours. <\/p>\n

Oddly, none of the Academy\u2019s Instagram or YouTube posts from the evening utilized Dimoldenberg as a collaborator. (Across platforms, Dimoldenberg has over 5 million subscribers \u2014 equal to the Academy.) Whether oversight or strategy, it reflects a dilemma facing Hollywood now. Everyone knows that change isn\u2019t just coming, it\u2019s here, but there\u2019s real confusion (or denial) in acting on it.<\/p>\n

I sought some clarity from Ben Woods, an analyst at entertainment research firm MIDiA and an author of its recent report, \u201cThe New Hollywood.\u201d<\/a> Among the findings: If you\u2019re younger than 34, broadcast is a distant third to social and streaming. Even in the oldest cohort (those 65 and older), broadcast barely holds the majority at 55 percent. (It\u2019s currently unclear if the 2026 Oscars<\/a> will be available on streaming; this year, it streamed on Hulu.)<\/p>\n

The report also offered a strategic playbook for traditional media, but it\u2019s not what anyone at the Academy cocktail would want to hear. Recommendations include hiring digital natives, lean production cycles (citing Dhar Mann\u2019s $1,000 per minute<\/a>), repackaging back catalogs into multiple FAST or social channels, and adapting to vertical, scrolling content. Bottom line: Traditional players must adopt creator-driven, social-first strategies or risk irrelevance.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Clockwise from top left: Quinta Brunson, Dave Franco and Alison Brie, Anna Kendrick, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas<\/p>\n

At an evening honoring Oscar contenders and their stars, like \u201cJay Kelly\u201d (George Clooney, Adam Sandler, and Laura Dern), \u201cSentimental Value\u201d (Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), and \u201cDeliver Me from Nowhere\u201d (Jeremy Allen White, Scott Cooper, Jeremy Strong, and Bruce Springsteen), social cutdowns weren\u2019t top of mind \u2014 but they may be the format in which (parts) of these films are most widely seen.<\/p>\n

Woods knows his report doesn\u2019t necessarily deliver a popular message. He often gets variations on this question: With a hazy monetization strategy, exactly why should companies do this? The answer, so much as there is one, is don\u2019t kill the messenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it better to be able to offer [brands] that holistic message whereby you can say, \u2018We can reach audiences \u2014 our classic audiences through our broadcast channels, through our streaming channels, and also by the way, we manage the relationship for all of the social audiences and we know exactly what they look like and how they differ?\u2019 I think that\u2019s a powerful message that you\u2019re going to want to try and control rather than not,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

And if you don\u2019t \u2014 well, nature hates a vacuum. \u201cIf you don\u2019t embrace it, you\u2019re going to see situations which we\u2019re already seeing whereby brands are going direct to consumers with entertainment content, whether that\u2019s Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, whether that\u2019s the Waitrose supermarket in the UK with its really popular video podcasts, whether that\u2019s the Tinder dating app creating a reality TV series akin to \u2018Love Island,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI think the creator economy has created a license to entertain for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one would equate a supermarket podcast with an Oscar contender, but that\u2019s also beside the point.<\/p>\n

A supermarket podcast or dating-app reality series doesn\u2019t belong in the same conversation as Clooney or Springsteen. And the Academy Gala has stolen bragging rights from the Academy\u2019s own Governors Awards as the season\u2019s first must-attend event.<\/p>\n

It was also proof that the industry can\u2019t believe tradition is enough. Will Hollywood be able to embrace the creator economy and keep its place at the center of culture \u2014 or will the next generation of audiences decide that center lies somewhere else? <\/p>\n