🎧 How the Oscars Actually Happen
Academy heads Lynette Howell Taylor & Bill Kramer (almost) tell me their secrets. Plus: My final predictions!
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No matter what happens at the Oscars on Sunday, we’ve known for almost a year that the ceremony was in good hands — specifically since March 17, 2025, when the Academy confirmed that Conan O’Brien would return as host for the second year in a row. It was unusually early for the Oscars to announce its host, and for the viewers who loved O’Brien’s Substance parody and “I Won’t Waste Time” musical number, it was a relief that we might get more of the same. But surely no one was as relieved about O’Brien’s return as the people who actually make the Oscars happen.
“When you have a collaborator like that, who’s coming with that kind of energy and joy and passion, and brilliant creativity, it just makes our lives so much easier,” says Lynette Howell Taylor, who took over as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last summer, and was previously chair of the Academy’s Awards Committee (which means she came in knowing a lot about how to make a good Oscars show). “We’re so lucky to have him, and we’re so lucky that he said yes for the second year in a row.”
On this week’s episode of the Prestige Junkie podcast, Taylor joins me alongside Academy CEO Bill Kramer to share a little bit of insight into this year’s Oscars — as usual, they’re very hesitant to reveal any surprises — and also a lot about how the Academy really works. On that subject, they’re a bit more forthcoming, explaining not only how they collaborate to create the Oscars show but also how they wrangle nearly 11,000 Academy members to vote for the awards each year.
Take, for example, this year’s new requirement that members check a box confirming they’ve seen all the movies nominated in a category before they’re allowed to vote on it. As Kramer explains, that change came about after months of consideration, and then even more months spent ensuring all the members actually understood how it would work.
“It’s about equity, it’s about fairness, it’s about giving all films and performances their due — and our members are eager to do that,” he says. “And I believe most of them do that anyway.”
I asked Kramer and Taylor about some of the other hot-button topics around the Oscars right now, including how the new casting award will be presented during the ceremony and the rule change I most want to see (bestowing the international feature Oscar on the winning film’s director, not just the home country). But what became clearest in our conversation was how much they are also fans of the Oscars, just like me and probably most of you listening to the podcast. When Taylor was hired to produce the show in 2020 — she’s actually the person who orchestrated my all-time favorite Oscar moment, when Jane Fonda opened the envelope for Parasite’s victory — she sat down and rewatched every ceremony from the past decade. She thought it was a dream assignment.
“I was literally like, oh my God, I’m getting paid to sit on my couch and watch 10 Oscar shows,” Taylor tells me, eventually revealing which one was her favorite (you’ll have to listen), and how it sums up her entire philosophy of what an Oscars show should be. “It’s really important for us that the night is about celebrating and elevating the filmmaking community. There should absolutely be tons of humor, and it should all be under that banner of celebration.”
Hear much more from Kramer and Taylor on today’s episode of the podcast, which is supersized because it also includes my and Christopher Rosen’s final Oscar predictions in all 24 categories (read more about those here, and keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for the rest!). For more from Chris and me, make sure to tune in to our Oscar night livestream on YouTube starting at 3 p.m. PT — we’ll be chatting through the entire Oscar broadcast, with pauses for listening to the speeches, of course! Have a watch party with us — if we’re making these faces, you know it’s going well.
