Why Stephen King thinks the 2025 Oscars should be canceled

The wildfires currently raging in Los Angeles, California have caused unprecedented destruction since they first broke out on January 7, 2025. A little over a week later the CalFire website says that to date, 24 people have died, 40,660 hectares of land have burned and over 12,300 buildings have been destroyed. The city’s residents are both shocked and grieving as they face an uncertain future of reconstruction and further disaster – as these fires are still not fully contained and new fires could break out at any moment.

Amid all this, the film industry, which has been based in the city for over a century, is struggling. Films need to be made, released and promoted to ensure that this terrible start to 2025 is not made worse by a significant drop in box office. It’s a terrible necessity. But are the Oscars a necessity?

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards next Thursday (the announcement was originally scheduled for tomorrow), it won’t be hard for anyone to be happy about a major personal achievement during So many colleagues are relying on GoFundMes to give them a little boost as they begin the long road of rebuilding. Given the unpredictability of these fires, it is impossible to know where we will be from one day to the next. Therefore, if the situation continues as it is or, God forbid, worsens, AMPAS may forego the celebrity-hosted announcements. Announce all nominees in a press release.

Regardless of what happens, there will be those who say the Oscars on March 2 should be canceled. It’s an option that many people have been quietly debating over the last week, and it has now been brought to the forefront by Stephen King.

On Wednesday, King, a member of the academy, said went to Bluesky to express his opposition to this year’s Oscars. “I will not be attending the Oscars this year,” King wrote. “In my opinion they should cancel it. No shine when Los Angeles is on fire.”

King’s point is well understood, and he won’t be the only one to point it out, but canceling the Oscars entirely carries potential financial downside. Films like “The Substance” “Sing Sing”, “Hard Truths” and “Nickel Boys” are hoping for an increase in visibility as well as a boost in business (re-releases are planned for several candidates in the next few weeks), all of which would be wiped out if AMPAS were to forego a ceremony or abolish voting altogether. I don’t know how this will play out, but it’s a dilemma that the film industry will have to contend with even after the wildfires are contained. Who wants to take off their tuxedo and have their ego stroked on the Oscars red carpet when so many friends lost everything just two months earlier?

The argument for holding the Oscars this year will likely hinge on the fact that they managed to hold a ceremony in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, while major hospitals in major cities were packing bodies into refrigeration units. The show must go on, right? Perhaps. It will be interesting to see how Hollywood reacts in the next few months.