The Academy Awards could be brought forward a month in an attempt to speed up the nomination process and give smaller-budget movies a chance to shine.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tentatively voted to move it from March to February, starting in 2004.

The idea behind it is to give often forgotten movies which open earlier in the year as good a chance as the end-of-year blockbusters which tend to get more attention as Oscar time approaches.

We would like to see much less hype, to let the films speak for themselves

Martin Levy, Academy board member

The official Oscar season currently runs from the end of December, the deadline for films to qualify for Oscar eligibility, until the awards are handed out in late March, six weeks after nominations are announced.

"Moving up a month makes those films fresher in the minds of not just academy voters, but everyone who sees films and sees our show," said Academy spokeswoman Lesile Unger.

Big studios also have huge marketing budgets to spend on Oscar promotional campaigns.

The Oscars got a new home at the Kodak Theatre in LA in 2002

"We would like to see much less hype, to let the films speak for themselves," said board member and DreamWorks executive Marvin Levy.

"It would just accelerate everything, and I think it would be really good - good for the studios, good for the public and we hope, also good for television."

Ms Unger said the academy had never been "particularly fond" of Oscar campaigning by studios but it was mainly concerned with cutting down the Oscars process.

The celebratory 75th Academy Awards will still go ahead on 23 March 2003.

Among early contenders are British movie About a Boy, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and Insomnia starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams.

This would not be the first time the ceremony has been moved, with March only being its regular month since 1989.

The first ceremony in 1929 was held in May and then moved to November before being fixed for April during the 60s, 70s and 80s.