In the earliest days of 2025, the City of Los Angeles was struck by a long feared tragedy that has devastated the community.  Two massive fires broke out in the townships of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, both of which grew to enormous size and ferocity due to a wind storm event that was strong even by the standards of the yearly Santa Ana winds that the area normally experiences.  As a resident of the City of Angels myself, I can attest to the intensity of these winds on the night of January 7th.  But I was lucky to be in a part of the city that was spared the worst of the destruction; the only impact I felt was power being out in my neighborhood for a couple of days.  Pacific Palisades and Altadena were not so lucky.  Both communities saw near total destruction, with over a thousand structures burned to the ground; mostly homes and a few structures of historic importance to the city.  And the impact on the people who lived there is immeasurable.  It affected many ranges of residents, from the affluent who resided in beach side mansions in the Palisades to middle and working class citizens living in the foothills of Altadena.  It is estimated this will be one of the costliest disasters ever in the United States, with so many properties reduced to smoldering ruins; a fact that will also be consequential for the entirety of Los Angeles, the state of California, and the United States for many years beyond.  As the fires dissipate, the next important thing to do next is to decide how we rebuild.  Many things will need to be done, especially in deciding the infrastructure needed to help prevent something like this from happening again, especially with climate change making weather events more extreme, like the wind storm that fanned the flames in the first place.  But also, the question is also being put forward about how quickly we should be moving on in the wake of such a tragedy.

The thing about the fire happening in a community such as the Pacific Palisades is that many of the victims involved who lost their homes in the inferno are also professionals in the movie industry.  Movie stars, producers, writers, directors and agents were all among the people who called the Palisades home, and they of course were overwhelmingly affected by this disaster.  Of course, the scale of the loss varies.  For some, the fire in the Palisades may have taken away one of many residences that some of the most affluent owned.  But for others, they lost everything in the fire; an entire livelihood gone up in smoke.  And those residents will have to see their lives put into an upheaval, as they will be displaced for a while, which could affect their work in the business.  The hope is that many of them will be covered by insurance, but with home insurers pulling out of the state because of the increased threats of wildfires, it’s not a certainty that everyone will get reimbursed.  Because of all the disruption to the livelihoods of professionals in the business, there has been a significant slowdown of productions going on in the City of Los Angeles, which has already seen a downturn in film shoots post-pandemic.  Of course it would be a bad thing to pressure the people who lost their homes to quickly get back to work.  It’s going to take time for people to adjust, and the humane thing is to give them the time they need.  But, there’s also the fact that this is a city dependent on the film industry to help boost other businesses that make up the life blood of the community.  The unfortunate thing is that this tragedy has occurred at one of the worst possible times for the Hollywood community, which is Awards season.  At a time when the industry is gearing up to put on the show of the year.

This has led to the belief from some that Awards season should be either indefinitely postponed or outright cancelled in response to the tragic fires.  Some events have indeed been cancelled out of respect to the people who lost their homes, though these have been some of the less high profile ones.  It’s another question whether something as big as the Oscars should also be cancelled, but it’s something people within the industry have been floating out there.  One of the reasons people want to see the Oscars cancelled is because many of the voting body of the Academy were among those who lost their homes in the fires, and it is believed that putting the pressure on them to spend this time casting their votes for this year’s race would be in bad taste.  Now, not all voting members may feel that way, including ones directly involved in the tragedy, but it is something that certainly can’t be dismissed either.  For now, the Oscars are still scheduled for March 2nd of this year, but the voting deadline was extended an extra week to accommodate those affected by the fires.  The Oscar nominations came out this week as promised but later than planned, so it looks like things are full steam ahead, but there are considerations being made about the ceremony itself.  Some believe that it will also be in bad taste to have the usual glitz and glamour showcase that the Oscars usually are in the wake of the tragedy.  Plans are now calling for a toned down show that may also be turned into a fundraiser to help those in need.  One of the big changes already discussed is the elimination of extravagant stage performances for the Best Song nominees, which is a shame given that two of the best such performances have happened in the last two Oscars, with “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (2022) and “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (2023).  We’ll have to see whether or not it’s a strategy that works, but it’s also a situation that the Oscars have been through before.

There’s something inspirationally resilient about the Oscars; the fact that it’s an institution that still stands even through significant moments of upheaval in our nation’s history.  From it’s inception in 1927, the show kept being put on every year without fail, all the way through the Depression and also through World War II.  Even the Olympics can say that.  Of course, during the War, the industry had to deal with many of their professionals putting their lives on hold to serve overseas, so to put on the Oscars each year, the ceremony evolved into something else, which became a way to promote the war effort and in a familiar plan to what we are seeing right now, used to fund raise by selling war bonds.  The Post-War years saw the Oscars return to it’s usual glitz and glamour for the next half century, but a national tragedy would cause another adjustment for the pageantry of the show.  The 9/11 attacks made Hollywood reconsider their plans for the ceremony in the show the following year.  The show opened with a solemn reminder of the tragedy, with Tom Cruise delivering an opening address stressing the importance of using art to deal with trauma, and the show included many tributes to the city of New York that suffered the horrific attack.  It was a ceremony about solidarity for a broken nation, though sadly it would be short lived as the War on Terror that followed would divide us once again.  The Oscars also saw a major disruption again with the Covid-19 pandemic.  Though the ceremony of 2021 was still put on, it was done so in a smaller venue (Los Angeles’ Union Station) with fewer guests spaced further apart in accordance with socially distancing.  It was also held a full two months later than originally planned, mid-way through the month of April.  And yet with all the barriers in place, the Oscars still managed to not skip a single year.

The one big difference this year is that the tragedy of the LA fires is that they hit much closer to home.  World War II and even the 9/11 attacks were certainly felt by the industry, but the city itself remained unharmed and people still went about their lives.  The fires on the other hand have left many within the industry directly affected, and that has put the city itself into a tough place.  A significant portion of the movie industry are not ready to just pivot into awards season mode.  It’s easy for many to dismiss the Palisades fire victims because many of them were disproportionately wealthy, but that’s not the case for the most part.  There were middle to lower class victims of the fires too.  One of the housing developments lost in the fire was a mobile home park just off of the Pacific Coast Highway that borders the Palisades community, and many of those residents were not among the rich and famous.  Also, the loss of so many homes in the area affects a lot of the downstream industries that serviced the Palisades, like landscaping workers, housekeepers, and assistants who served the residents of the community.  It’s those downstream services that are now feeling the effects of the fires that ravaged this community.  They have seen a significant clientele desolated, and it’s affecting their bottom line because there is nothing in place to compensate for that usually reliable income.  The same goes for Altadena, which is even more desolated by this tragedy.  Not only did Altadena lose a great many homes in their residential areas, but also the town center with it’s collection of mom and pop stores and businesses got lost in the fire.  It’s a scar on that community that may never be healed, as a whole chunk of their history is now gone.  The famous faces you see on the news are only a small part of the tragedy, and even those who didn’t lose their homes in the fire are going to be feeling the after effects for a while as so much business in this town was tied into these communities.

But there is the argument that putting things on hold out of sympathy would be making the situation even worse.  So much of the industry is tied into awards season, and cancelling the show would do more bad than good.  A lot of below the line workers look forward every year to staging the Oscars.  These include stagehands, lighting technicians, camera technicians, security details, caterers and photographers.  And that’s just for the show itself.  In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, you have tailor and dressmakers across the city prepping things to wear for all the people who will be attending the ceremony, as well as publicists and marketing teams working hard to push their clients’ films towards Awards season wins.  For all these below the line workers, the Awards season is essential to their yearly income.  They can count on the Oscars to be presented every year without a hitch, and they plan all of their activity that year around this certainty.  Suddenly cancelling the Oscars would either mean money would go to waste on products already spent with no chance of recouping, or budgets would have to be cut in the back half of the year to account for the shortfall that occurred because of no ceremony being held.  It would be especially disruptive for boutique businesses that are trying to advance in the competitive Hollywood industry.  Hollywood isn’t just a movie making business, but an industry that supports many other disciplines in the creative arts.  And awards season is one of the primary engines of what keeps the industry going.  It may not have a major downstream effect if something like a luncheon or a press event gets cancelled due to a tragedy, but cancelling something as vital as the Oscars would definitely be a disruption.

Going into this awards season, the considerations for the victims of the fires should certainly be met, but also the idea that the awards should be cancelled for the sake of good taste is also a bad idea.  I believe that the plan to scale things back a bit is not a terrible idea.  You definitely don’t want to put on the air of disrespect by pretending that nothing had happened.  I think you are definitely going to see a lot of praise for first responders who helped put out the fires, with some of them maybe being invited onstage at the ceremony itself for a round of applause.  The call for the show to be a fundraiser for charity is also a good thing, as it allows for anyone watching the show to contribute towards helping those in need.  What Hollywood definitely needs to do is to walk that fine line of honoring itself and also not making the tragedy something that is self-serving for themselves.  The people in that room wearing extravagant suits and dresses will be doing alright.  The show just needs to put a spotlight on those who were most affected by the fires.  And at the same time, also show that Hollywood is still as vibrant as it’s always been; that they are ready for making the future a lot better.  Like tragedies before, with 9/11 and Covid, the resilience of the movies and the Oscars has helped the world to heal before and it can happen again.  While we acknowledge the human cost of this tragedy, we should also celebrate the films that we love that help us move forward.  That’s what this awards season in particular should do.  Make us remember why a place like Hollywood is so important to our culture and why it’s important to recognize and support the ones who keep it moving, especially those whose work remains largely unseen by the general public.

A lot of lessons are going to be learned from these devastating fires.  It definitely shows how much we are at the mercy of climate change, and that incidents like this sadly will become more common.  We definitely need to take climate seriously and build up infrastructure to deal with it’s changes.  Fire stations also need to be funded much better than they are and firefighters, who do so much thankless work every single day, should be paid much better as well.  There also needs to be accountability over how we rebuild from this disaster, as insurance fraud is rampant and many people are not getting compensated the way they should in the wake of devastating tragedies.  Also, the price gouging that landlords are putting on renters all across the city in the wake of this disaster needs to end.  Hollywood is just one industry within the City of Los Angeles that is feeling the residual effects of this disaster, and the long term repercussions will be around for decades.  Who knows what kind of effect the inhalation of smoke from these fires may have on the health of Angelinos in the years ahead.  It’s going to be a long recovery period, one that may be even worse because of the shenanigans going on in Washington, but that’s a rant that I’d rather not get into.  The one thing that I wish I can pass on to my readers is that you continue to show support for those who suffered in this tragedy by not just giving what you can to charity, but also to keep supporting the movies that the victims of the fires had a hand in making.  The continued success of movies and TV shows made in Hollywood will help ensure that many of those who lost their livelihoods in the fire will have a chance to rebuild with continued employment in a vibrant and thriving industry.   It’s not just the wealthy movie stars that need help, it’s all the below the line workers who are dependent on the industry not missing a beat that are very much need of support.  Like a phoenix from the ashes, Hollywood will thrive again, and that’s why it’s important for events like the Oscars to still move forward.