The ban on Oscar 'screeners' has caused an outcry

The awards, normally held in December, are seen as a major indicator of who will be in the running for Oscars.

The ban was imposed by the Motion Picture Association Of America (MPAA), in a bid to curb piracy.

Members of the Association said they would consider holding the awards, if the ban were lifted.

Ella Taylor, a critic for the LA Weekly, suggested cancelling the awards, saying that without DVDs and videos of films - known as screeners, the voters would not be able to see all the necessary films.

"Unless they rescind the ban we just don't feel that we can really do our work properly", she said.

Taylor said that she hoped other critics' groups would follow suit.

Disadvantage

Last week MPAA president Jack Valenti met with studio heads to try and find a way of compromising the ruling, which has created an outcry in Hollywood.

Actors and filmmakers protesting the ban have said that it will place smaller, independent films at a disadvantage as voters will not have time to see every film in the cinema.

Many independent film-makers and studios are also unable to afford the cost of renting cinemas to screen their films for voters, making screeners even more important for them.

The Writers' Guild Of America (WGA) was the first union to condemn the ban, which was imposed at the beginning of October.

This was followed by an open letter to Jack Valenti in the trade paper Variety two weeks ago, signed by 142 directors including Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.