Stephen King said he will not be voting on this year’s Oscar nominations and thinks the 2025 Academy Awards should be canceled altogether.
The horror writer took to his Blue Sky account on Wednesday to share his thoughts about the upcoming ceremony, scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 2. The prestigious ceremony has already faced challenges amid the ongoing L.A. wildfires — the Academy delayed the open voting period by two days, and also pushed the nominations announcement from Friday, Jan. 17 to Sunday, Jan. 19th.
“Not voting in the Oscars this year. IMHO they should cancel them. No glitz with Los Angeles on fire,” King wrote.
He is not the only celebrity to call for canceling the awards ceremony. Jean Smart, who is most recently known for her work on “Hacks,” took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the upcoming ceremony.
“With ALL due respect during Hollywood’s season of celebration, I hope any of the networks televising the upcoming awards will seriously consider NOT televising them and donating the revenue they would have gathered to victims of the fires and the firefighters,” she wrote on Instagram.
Despite the growing pushback, Academy CEO Bill Kramer shared in a statement with the LA Times that the ceremony will indeed be happening as originally planned.
“After consultation with ABC, our board and other key stakeholders in the Los Angeles and film communities, we have made the carefully considered decision to proceed with the 97th Oscars ceremony as planned on March 2,” he said. “This year’s ceremony will include special moments acknowledging those who fought so bravely against the wildfires. We feel that we must go forward to support our film community and to use our global platform to bring attention to these critical moments in our history.”
Actress Rosanna Arquette, meanwhile, shared a statement in support of the holding the upcoming ceremony. “This year, it’s not just about celebrating art,” she said, “it’s about using art to rebuild, inspire and help those who need it most.”
The Los Angeles fires have yet to be contained. With fire warnings still active around the Los Angeles area, time will tell if the ceremony will move forward according to plan.
