It’s just five years since the Oscars ceremony was brought forward from the end of March to late February, but as studio executives assess another long awards season, there is talk of moving the event into January. The main reasons cited are expense and fatigue.

Costs were scaled down this year, and none of the nominated movies had a campaign to match the
$15 million spent on promoting last year's best picture winner, No Country for Old Men. However, the only film to gain significantly from this year's ceremony was Slumdog Millionaire, which has soared at the box office since it collected eight Academy Awards last month.

Reflecting on the sheer length of awards season, Academy governor Martin Levy, a longtime publicist for Steven Spielberg, remarked, "I can't believe we used to go all the way through March."