Should the TV and film academies merge?

The Hollywood Reporter

The blurring of the line between movies and television was made more apparent this week by the Motion Picture Academy's announcement of 842 new members, including actors known primarily for their TV work like Damian Lewis, Elisabeth Moss and Sterling K. Brown. "Take a deep dive into the list and it’s striking how many have roots in TV or earn the larger part of their living there," says Stephen Galloway. "The academy’s open-door policy toward these TV toilers has incensed its old guard, who cling to the notion that pictures can exist like the Boy in the Plastic Bubble, isolated from the viruses that have infected the rest of the media world. But only the most churlish would gripe at including the likes of Claire Foy, Elisabeth Moss and Sterling K. Brown — actors of the highest caliber, all about to become members — or Jimmy Chin, the co-director of Free Solo, which has been watched by vastly more people in their living rooms than on the silver screen. Anyone who thinks these are exceptions should think again. The osmosis we’ve seen between film and TV is increasing and will increase at a vertiginous pace as home entertainment improves, as screens get bigger and brighter, as 3D and VR enter the living room, as streamers continue to back thoughtful material of the sort the studios now largely shun. The barriers between film and TV are tumbling down. So why aren’t the barriers between their most high-profile institutions, the movie and TV academies? Carry the argument to its logical conclusion and it seems evident: at some point the two organizations must become one. And if they become one, what should prevent their most visible baubles, the Oscars and Emmys, from doing the same?"