Kodak bidding Oscars adieu

Each year at the Oscars ceremony, Hollywood says goodbye to stars and filmmakers who've died. This year the award show will bid adieu to the Kodak Theatre.

Just a decade ago, the glamorous 3,300-seat venue was touted as the Oscars' first permanent home. But the 131-year-old Eastman Kodak Co., of Rochester, N.Y., has forfeited its sponsorship of the venue as it struggles with bankruptcy.

The move symbolizes Kodak's fading star power in Hollywood. Although seven of the nine "Best Picture" nominees were shot on Kodak film, the industry's increasing use of digital editing and projection has ravaged the company's printing business.

About half of the world's commercial screens now show movies from digital projectors, and by some estimates, film reels will soon be a thing of the past.

"35-millimeter is coming to the end of its life," said David Hancock, head of film and cinema for research firm IHS Screen Digest. "In four years' time there will be no film printing business."

At their peak, motion pictures accounted for more than 12 billion feet of film processing each year, enough to reach the moon and back five times, according to IHS. -- AP