Monday Mashups: New Year, Same Notable Events

We may officially be in the New Year but our favorite events will surely remain the same this 2019. That being said - our hopes are high that they surpass 2018 expectations. From highly scrutinized events such as the Oscars and the Super Bowl, to events that continue to get bigger each year like South by Southwest, here’s a look at what BizBash expects from major events this year.

Sundance Film Festival
The 35th edition of the winter festival staple in Park City, Utah, will run January 24 to February 3. Festival organizers shared new inclusion initiatives, which seek to add people to its programming team to achieve a 50/50 gender balance. The festival also partnered with Stacy L. Smith, the founder and director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, on a research project to analyze the demographics of submissions to the festival. For 2019, the festival received a record-breaking 14,259 submissions from 152 countries; it will screen 112 feature-length films that represent 33 countries and 45 first-time filmmakers. Fifty-three percent of the directors in the U.S. Dramatic Competition are women and 41 percent are people of color.

Super Bowl LIII
The 53rd Super Bowl is heading to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on February 3 and, naturally, the halftime show has taken up most of the media coverage of the N.F.L. championship so far. After Rihanna reportedly turned down the league’s offer to perform in support of ostracized player Colin Kaepernick, it has been confirmed that Maroon 5 will be the headliner. Now, the band is struggling to find other musicians to join them for the 13-minute show, as many artists are refusing to perform because of the N.F.L.’s position on a player’s right to protest. Besides the halftime show, the Super Bowl will see satellite events around Atlanta, including DirecTV Super Saturday Night featuring the Foo Fighters; and the first Bud Light Super Bowl Music Festival, headlined by Post Malone, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Migos, and Ludacris.

Grammy Awards 
After a one-year stint in New York, the Grammys will return to the Staples Center in Los Angeles for its 61st edition, which will air live on CBS February 10. After the last ceremony was criticized for its lack of female representation onstage and in major categories, the Recording Academy introduced a diversity task force to focus on female inclusion. So far, the awards seem to be improving from last year on that front; artists nominated in multiple major categories include Cardi B, Janelle Monae, Kacey Musgraves, and Lady Gaga. Whether the show will continue to draw low ratings—it saw a 24 percent drop in 2018—remains to be seen. Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, who drew backlash after saying women in the music industry needed to “step up,” will step down as president when his contract expires this year.

Academy Awards
In recent years, the Oscars dealt with considerable controversy and the lead-up to this year’s ceremony is proving to be no different. The 91st annual ceremony, which will air live on ABC February 24 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, still doesn't have a host. In December, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars governing body) announced Kevin Hart would host, but in the span of a week, Hart dropped out of the gig after refusing to apologize for past homophobic tweets. Now, the ceremony is considering having multiple hosts to move the event along. And after the Oscars saw its lowest rated ceremony in history in 2018, the Academy announced the runtime would be shortened to three hours and that certain technical categories would be awarded during commercial breaks; footage from those categories will be edited and aired toward the end of the broadcast. The Academy also announced that in 2020 the ceremony will be moved to early February, which might have event producers dealing with a quicker turnaround after other major award shows. And it’s still unclear if the Oscars will move forward with its idea to introduce a category honoring “popular films.”

South by Southwest
Austin’s annual technology, music, film, and television conference and festival will take over numerous venues in the city March 8 to 18. The 33rd edition of the event will have keynotes from Instagram C.E.O. and co-founder Kevin Systrom and TechCrunch editor-at-large Josh Constine. Featured speakers include Lance Bass, Elisabeth Moss, and Trevor Noah. The festival shows no signs of slowing down its growth—in 2018, the South by Southwest’s economic impact for Austin totaled $350.6 million.

Met Gala
Reaching new levels of pop culture relevance when it was recreated in the female-led heist comedy film Ocean’s 8 last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Benefit will have a theme inspired by camp. The museum’s 2019 Costume Institute exhibition, “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” is inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’” The gala, taking place May 6, will be co-chaired by Anna Wintour, Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, and Harry Styles.

San Diego Comic-Con
Comic-Con International, also known as San Diego Comic-Con, will celebrate its 50th anniversary July 18 to 21 at the San Diego Convention Center. Last year, the event saw the absence of major brands and franchises, including Marvel, Star Wars, and HBO. It hasn’t been announced whether or not they will return this year, but the convention might have better odds, with the final season of Game of Thrones, and films like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and the final installment of the Star Wars sequels all premiering in 2019.

Don't take BizBash's word for it! Tune in to each event and devour the details of finding out whether or not your expectations have been met. We can't wait to see what unfolds!