This year’s Academy Museum Gala will double as a private Taylor Swift concert, with the pop star locked in to perform at the 2026 ceremony honoring Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo and filmmaker-composer John Carpenter.
The The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures — the organization behind the annual Oscars — announced the news on Thursday (Oct. 8), just nine days ahead of the event on Oct. 17. “Taylor is an extraordinary talent whose work resonates around the world,” said Academy Museum and Academy Collection director and president Amy Homma in a statement.
“We are thrilled to welcome her to this year’s gala and look forward to her performance to close a wonderful evening of honoring three extraordinary filmmakers and supporting the Academy Museum’s mission to celebrate and preserve cinema,” Homma continued.
This year will mark the academy’s sixth annual gala. Last year, it honored Penélope Cruz, Bowen Yang, Walter Salles and Bruce Springsteen, who performed at the event.
Word of Swift’s performance at the event comes as her Billboard Hot 100-topping song “I Knew It, I Knew You” — penned for the Toy Story 5 soundtrack — continues to garner Oscar buzz in regards to the best original song category. She previously performed the track at the animated film’s world premiere in June, as well as incorporated it into a piano mashup with “August” and “All Too Well” at her Grammy Museum appearance in August.
It seems likely that Swift will sing “I Knew It, I Knew You” once again at the Academy Museum Gala to continue her “For Your Consideration” campaign, but the star also has four newly released songs to consider choosing from as well. At the end of September, she unleashed a quartet of bonus tracks to The Life of a Showgirl, her now-13-week Billboard 200 No. 1 album: “Patient Zero,” which topped the Hot 100, as well as “Pink Clouding,” “Babylon” and “Cleveland!”
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