How studios compete for screening rooms during awards season

Months before the red carpets are rolled out and the acceptance speeches are rehearsed, Hollywood insiders are locked in a quieter, behind-the-scenes competition: securing access to the best screening rooms in Los Angeles. In a city where buzz can make or break a film’s awards chances, finding the best venue to host industry voters, guild members and influencers has become a strategic game in which timing, location and the right audience can make all the difference.

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.

Securing these sought-after venues is anything but easy, however, and the competition 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 agency awards consultant 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. Hall, president of Screening Services Group, which has five screening venues in Beverly Hills and West L.A., has seen the battle for these rooms intensify over the years, with studios scrambling to secure 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 pressure to lock in dates early is driven by the high demand during critical windows such as the weeks surrounding AFI Fest and the motion picture academy’s Governors Awards, when talent is already in town and available 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 difficulty goes beyond simply reserving a room. Many venues operate on a “challenge” system by which one studio can contest another’s tentative booking if they’re willing to commit immediately. “If someone challenges a hold, they cannot back out, and the person being challenged has approximately two business hours to confirm,” says Hall, noting that the strict policy prevents dates from being tied up without a firm commitment.

Securing a venue is only part of the equation. Studios and distributors also face significant costs for additional services that come with hosting a screening. Each guild, for example, charges thousands of dollars to allow publicists to access its email list to send out mass invitations to members.

“The going rate for a guild [email blast] is around $3,000, so if you’re going to invite seven or eight guilds, it’s $20,000 or more just for the invitations,” says one awards consultant, who declined to speak on the record due to industry relationships. “That’s before you’ve booked the theater, flown in talent, booked groomers and cars or paid a moderator for the Q&A. It all adds up quickly.”

Over the years, screening venues have evolved to meet growing client demands. “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 Hall, who estimates that 40% of his company’s annual revenue comes from the three months at 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 landscape for more than a year, forcing screening room owners like Hall to rely on government loans to survive. But business snapped back quickly, as audiences tired of virtual events 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,” Hall says.

The closure of beloved venues such as the ArcLight on Sunset and the Landmark on Pico, both of which frequently played host to awards-season events, has only made finding a screening room more competitive, even as new venues like Vidiots in Eagle Rock have entered the field. To circumvent the crowd, Netflix has built its own network of screening spaces, including several of its own in-house theaters, along with the venerable Egyptian Theatre and Raleigh Studios, while Amazon Studios recently took over the former ArcLight in downtown Culver City.

Meanwhile, the geographical spread of awards voters across the city has expanded as 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 consultant. “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.”

While screenings may represent a relatively small slice of a studio’s overall awards campaign budget when compared to pricier line items such as advertising, they require meticulous planning to reach the right people in the right place at the right 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.”