There can be no overstating the importance of the annual Academy Awards® in determining which scripted narratives become the most talked about in any given year. Ever since the COVID-19 crisis shut down cinemas, the lack of clarity around when they might reopen has led to many questions circling how next year's ceremony—which hands out awards to films from 2020—will be affected.

Or if there will even be a ceremony.

It may have begun with jokes about Bad Boys For Life being up for Best Picture, but the fact is that the Oscars play a massive role in solidifying our most significant films in cultural history. The awards also serve to widen the audience of those films to a large degree.

In an effort to adapt the next ceremony to better reflect how massively upended the current film market is, the Academy announced changes this past week, the most significant of which was allowing films that have only appeared on streaming services to be eligible for consideration.

Previously, a film needed to have played in a theater for at least one week to be eligible. While there are obviously extenuating circumstances here, the move comes amidst years of debate around whether or not streaming films should be eligible at all. Some major voices have argued that even if a Netflix movie gets a qualifying run in a US theater, it should still be perceived as a TV movie.

Those cries have died down, and the prominence of Martin Scorsese's The Irishman (produced by Netflix) during the most recent ceremony shows that any stigma attached to streaming-aligned films has more or less dissipated.

There has always been far too much calculation around which films rise above the pack during awards season. It would be nice if it simply came down to which scripted narratives were the most beloved. Yet marketing, studio politics, star power, and trendiness have proved to be worryingly pervasive determining factors.

But the rule change (even if it is temporary, as the Academy has said) will nevertheless have a huge impact on the kinds of movies that next year's ceremony will recognize. Potentially in a good way. So while industry chaos may ensue, it also may lead to a more—dare we say it—democratic field of contenders. Where schmoozy guild events and other politicking factors have no determinative power, good old fashioned quality could be the driving force in elevating the films that eventually get nominated for now, and possibly into the future.

A lot of awards buzz begins with film festivals, and more and more of those are either being cancelled or moved online, so it will be very interesting to see how that affects which films get talked about.

There also remains a huge amount of uncertainty around the immediate future of the macro consumption of scripted narrative, but there's no doubt that changes to the Academy Awards will be something that many people, both inside and outside the industry, use to gauge the medium's suddenly rapid evolution.

News also emerged this past week that one of the theatrical experience's most high-profile advocates, writer-director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), is still working towards  the planned July 17^th opening of his newest film, the mysterious espionage action thriller Tenet.

With almost every other major film due to open around the same time thanks to delays until the end of the year, Nolan's expectation that Tenet will open as planned may seem a little optimistic. But few filmmakers have proved themselves as dedicated to cinema-going as Nolan, so we can rely upon his unwillingness to compromise in this arena to be a strong indicator of what might actually happen.

Safety will obviously be the main determining factor here, but if a Christopher Nolan epic is the first movie we all get to see in a cinema again, it will indeed be a glorious day for scripted narrative.