Months earlier than the purple carpets are rolled out and the acceptance speeches are rehearsed, Hollywood insiders are locked in a quieter, behind-the-scenes competitors: securing entry to the perfect screening rooms in Los Angeles. In a metropolis the place buzz could make or break a movie’s awards probabilities, discovering the perfect venue to host trade voters, guild members and influencers has turn into a strategic recreation during which timing, location and the suitable viewers could make all of the distinction.
L.A.‘s screening ecosystem offers a wide range of venues tailored to fit various needs. For intimate gatherings and tastemaker events, such locations as Soho House, NeueHouse and San Vicente Bungalows are favored for their exclusive atmosphere and upscale amenities, while theaters like the Wilshire Screening Room and Rodeo Screening Room provide a comfortable, functional setting ideal for no-frills For Your Consideration screenings aimed at awards voters. For larger events, theaters like Harmony Gold, Fine Arts and the Directors Guild of America can accommodate hundreds, making them perfect for Q&A sessions with filmmakers as well as guild screenings.
“If you’re not placing dates on maintain by spring for fall screenings — which I do know sounds insane — good luck getting something after Labor Day.”
— Michael Aaron Lawson, company awards guide
Securing these sought-after venues is something however simple, nonetheless, and the competitors heats up early. “The bigger venues are so desirable that studios and distributors will put holds on them a year in advance, sometimes before they even know what films they’ll have,” says company awards guide Michael Aaron Lawson. “If you’re not putting dates on hold by spring for fall screenings — which I know sounds insane — good luck getting anything after Labor Day.”
Michael S. Corridor, president of Screening Companies Group, which has 5 screening venues in Beverly Hills and West L.A., has seen the battle for these rooms intensify over time, with studios scrambling to safe spots earlier and earlier. “Twenty years ago, bookings didn’t start this early,” he says. “But about 10 years ago, studios began putting down holds as early as May — sometimes even before the Oscars for that year were done.”
The stress to lock in dates early is pushed by the excessive demand throughout essential home windows such because the weeks surrounding AFI Fest and the movement image academy’s Governors Awards, when expertise is already on the town and accessible for Q&As or receptions. “If you’re already going to commit to fly people in, you might as well pack the schedule and get as much out of it as you can,” says Lawson. “It’s all very strategic.”
The Soho Home.
(David Buchan)
The problem goes past merely reserving a room. Many venues function on a “challenge” system by which one studio can contest one other’s tentative reserving in the event that they’re prepared to commit instantly. “If someone challenges a hold, they cannot back out, and the person being challenged has approximately two business hours to confirm,” says Corridor, noting that the strict coverage prevents dates from being tied up and not using a agency dedication.
Over time, screening venues have developed to satisfy rising shopper calls for. “We started with just film screenings but gradually added things like an art gallery for receptions, digital formats and equipment like microphones and directors’ chairs,” says Corridor, who estimates that 40% of his firm’s annual income comes from the three months on the peak of awards season. “Some people get upset because it’s extra they have to pay, but that’s extra staff time and extra money we have to spend to buy and store this stuff, so there’s going to be a charge for that.”
The COVID-19 pandemic put a freeze on the screening panorama for greater than a yr, forcing screening room house owners like Corridor to depend on authorities loans to outlive. However enterprise snapped again shortly, as audiences uninterested in digital occasions and hungered to return to in-person screenings. “Our demand was back to record business as soon as we reopened, and we’ve been busy ever since,” Corridor says.
The closure of beloved venues such because the ArcLight on Sundown and the Landmark on Pico, each of which regularly performed host to awards-season occasions, has solely made discovering a screening room extra aggressive, whilst new venues like Vidiots in Eagle Rock have entered the sector. To bypass the group, Netflix has constructed its personal community of screening areas, together with a number of of its personal in-house theaters, together with the venerable Egyptian Theatre and Raleigh Studios, whereas Amazon Studios just lately took over the previous ArcLight in downtown Culver Metropolis.
NeueHouse in Hollywood.
(Phillip Faraone/Getty Photos)
In the meantime, the geographical unfold of awards voters throughout the town has expanded because the academy has swelled its ranks. “As the Academy has gotten larger and younger, people want to screen in a wider swath of the city,” says the awards guide. “People used to be obsessed with doing things as far west as possible with the idea that academy members lived in Malibu, Santa Monica and the Palisades. They still do, but they also live in Highland Park and North Hollywood and Studio City.”
Whereas screenings might symbolize a comparatively small slice of a studio’s total awards marketing campaign price range when in comparison with pricier line objects corresponding to promoting, they require meticulous planning to achieve the suitable folks in the suitable place on the proper time.
“Sometimes people think it’s no big deal, like it’s an easy thing to do, but it really involves so many moving parts,” says Lawson. “There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s pretty stressful, I will say.”