100th Academy Awards — Final Ceremony on ABC

What this countdown tracks

The 100th Academy Awards — Sunday 5 March 2028 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood — and, separately, the final Oscars ceremony broadcast on ABC under the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' long-running television deal with the Walt Disney Company. Reporting through 2025–26 has consistently flagged that AMPAS intends to put the post-2028 broadcast rights to open bid, with Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon all named as plausible bidders.

About the centennial

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on 16 May 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — a 15-minute private banquet honouring films from 1927–28. Wings won Outstanding Picture; Janet Gaynor won Best Actress; Emil Jannings won Best Actor. The ceremony moved to the Biltmore Hotel, the Cocoanut Grove, the Pantages Theatre, and finally the purpose-built Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland in 2002.

ABC has televised the Oscars continuously since 1976 under a series of long-term deals — currently extending through the 2028 ceremony. The network pays AMPAS approximately $100M per year for the rights and produces the live telecast in collaboration with the Academy.

Stakes

• 100th-edition centennial ceremony — extensive retrospective programming likely.
• Final ABC broadcast under the current deal; rights move to open bid.
• The streaming-vs-broadcast question for live event television is decided here for one of the last surviving non-sports broadcast cultural events.
• The 2028 Best Picture race will be the third post-strike, post-AI-reopener cycle and the first to fully reflect the new Oscars eligibility window (10–11 January).

Past round-number Oscars

• 75th (2003) — Chicago won Best Picture; Adrien Brody Best Actor.
• 50th (1978) — Annie Hall won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay.
• 25th (1953) — first televised Oscars; The Greatest Show on Earth Best Picture.
• 10th (1938) — The Life of Emile Zola Best Picture.

Significance

The 100th Academy Awards is the highest-profile centennial ceremony in American entertainment history that is on the calendar for the late 2020s, alongside the 100th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. The simultaneous expiration of the ABC broadcast deal makes 2028 the ceremony where the Academy decides whether the Oscars remain a broadcast institution or become a streaming property.

How to follow

Oscars.org for the official ceremony schedule, ABC.com for broadcast details, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (academymuseum.org) for centennial-tied exhibitions. Trade press coverage led by Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and the Ankler. Best Picture handicapping concentrated at GoldDerby, Variety's Awards Circuit and IndieWire.

Related countdowns

Track with the 99th Academy Awards 2027, the existing 100th Academy Awards 2028 entry, the Mickey Mouse centennial and the SAG-AFTRA contract expiry 2026 — the labour deal whose AI provisions will define the films competing in 2028.

FAQ

When is the 100th Oscars? 5 March 2028. Where is it held? The Dolby Theatre, Hollywood. Is it really the last on ABC? The current ABC-AMPAS deal ends after the 2028 telecast; reporting suggests the rights go to open bid. Who hosts? Not yet announced.