Will the Oscars trump Sundance?

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The Oscars might steal some of the starshine from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Officials at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks who give out the Academy Awards, are considering moving up the Oscar ceremony to late January or early February, starting in 2012, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The move is to make the Oscars "stay relevant," Academy president Tom Sherak told the Times. The Oscars currently run in late February or early March, months after the eligibility period of the movies that win Oscars — sometimes long after the movies have left theaters.

There are plenty of logistical hurdles to overcome before the schedule change happens, both with giving Academy members enough time to watch the nominated movies and with finding a Sunday when the televised ceremony won't compete with the Super Bowl or NFL playoffs.

But a late January Oscar ceremony — and the bevy of pre-Oscar parties, celebrity swag lounges and other preliminary events — could keep a lot of movie stars from venturing north to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. Whether this is a good thing or not is subject for debate.