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At the Academy Gala, Old Hollywood Meets the Creator Economy Read Next: Getting Out of Oregon Gave Kelly Reichardt the Best Filmmaking Experience of Her Life Newsletters Alerts & Newsletters By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 IndieWire Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. In Development The Academy Gala Went on a Chicken Shop Date: Notes on the New Hollywood Oscar season’s soft launch is glamorous and familiar, but the industry is on new ground. By Dana Harris-Bridson IndieWire editor in chief Dana Harris Dana Harris-Bridson More stories by Dana This Is a Cinderella Story the Film Industry Needs Nobody Brags About an Algorithm: As Awards Embrace All Platforms, Everybody Wins Sundance Won’t Save Filmmakers, but Communities Might October 20, 2025 6:33 pm The 2025 Academy Gala, with "Chicken Shop Date" creator Amelia Dimoldenberg (center) as the cocktail party's red-carpet emcee. Hunter Abrams Share on Facebook Share to Flipboard Share on LinkedIn Submit to Reddit Post to Tumblr Print This Page Share on WhatsApp 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). This year’s event also carried an element of nostalgia. Whether it’s 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 — only now, when LA production continues to drop and jobs are scarce everywhere, it’s not. Related Stories When Jafar Panahi Has a Story to Tell, Nothing Will Stop Him Ethan Hawke Keeps Getting Better, as Music Enriches His Art The Academy knows it, too. It selected Amelia Dimoldenberg, creator of YouTube’s “Chicken Shop Date,” as the night’s emcee for the Academy’s 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 — some of whom have been on her YouTube show, or want to be. It’s become a must-stop for promotional tours. Oddly, none of the Academy’s Instagram or YouTube posts from the evening utilized Dimoldenberg as a collaborator. (Across platforms, Dimoldenberg has over 5 million subscribers — equal to the Academy.) Whether oversight or strategy, it reflects a dilemma facing Hollywood now. Everyone knows that change isn’t just coming, it’s here, but there’s real confusion (or denial) in acting on it. I sought some clarity from Ben Woods, an analyst at entertainment research firm MIDiA and an author of its recent report, “The New Hollywood.” Among the findings: If you’re 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’s currently unclear if the 2026 Oscars will be available on streaming; this year, it streamed on Hulu.) The report also offered a strategic playbook for traditional media, but it’s not what anyone at the Academy cocktail would want to hear. Recommendations include hiring digital natives, lean production cycles (citing Dhar Mann’s $1,000 per minute), 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. Clockwise from top left: Quinta Brunson, Dave Franco and Alison Brie, Idris Elba, Anna Kendrick, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas At an evening honoring Oscar contenders and their stars, like “Jay Kelly” (George Clooney, Adam Sandler, and Laura Dern), “Sentimental Value” (Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), and “Deliver Me from Nowhere” (Jeremy Allen White, Scott Cooper, Jeremy Strong, and Bruce Springsteen), social cutdowns weren’t top of mind — but they may be the format in which (parts) of these films are most widely seen. Woods knows his report doesn’t 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’t kill the messenger. “Is it better to be able to offer [brands] that holistic message whereby you can say, ‘We can reach audiences — 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?’ I think that’s a powerful message that you’re going to want to try and control rather than not,” Woods said. And if you don’t — well, nature hates a vacuum. “If you don’t embrace it, you’re going to see situations which we’re already seeing whereby brands are going direct to consumers with entertainment content, whether that’s Dick’s Sporting Goods, whether that’s the Waitrose supermarket in the UK with its really popular video podcasts, whether that’s the Tinder dating app creating a reality TV series akin to ‘Love Island,’” he said. “I think the creator economy has created a license to entertain for anyone.” No one would equate a supermarket podcast with an Oscar contender, but that’s also beside the point. Toward the end of the evening I caught up with an Oscar-winning filmmaker with multiple active projects but who decided, for the first time in over a decade, not to spend this year in production. It’ll still be there when you get back, I said. After a long pause, a sincere question: “Will it?” Daily Headlines Daily Headlines covering Film, TV and more. More from IndieWire Thompson on Hollywood ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Is Coming for That Best Documentary Oscar See Which Countries Have Submitted Films for Best International Feature at the 2026 Oscars Awards Calendar The 2025 — 2026 Film Awards Calendar Stretches Out the Season Thompson on Hollywood DOC NYC 2025 Reveals Influential Awards Short List, from ’Cover-Up’ to ‘Perfect Neighbor’ Critics Choice Awards 2025 Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominations Led by ‘Orwell: 2+2=5’ BAFTA North America’s Inaugural Honours Awards for TV, Film, and Video Games Now Won’t Roll Out Until Fall 2026 Daily Headlines Daily Headlines covering Film, TV and more. By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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