Ryan Adams at Awardsdaily reports that the AMPAS has discussed moving the Academy Awards to January. This means that studios will have less time to market their 'prestige picutres' and smaller films won't have the ability to gain momentum/exposure from the pre-Oscars awards circuit. Furthermore, awards such as the Golden Globes, SAG, etc may all seem redundant because they are largely viewed as precursors to the Oscars. The worst part, I think, is that the average moviegoer won't have seen many of the nominated films unless studios dramatically alter their release patterns.
A terrible, terrible idea!