LOS ANGELES — Will the next Academy Awards ceremony be street smart, like the “House Party” movies? Digitally savvy, with a BuzzFeed twist? Or as grandly mainstream as, oh, almost anything Tom Hanks has ever done?

The answer may depend on a talent search that will soon be concluded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After three consecutive Oscar shows from the producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, officers and executives of the Academy have been quietly examining an intellectually and professionally diverse group of prospects as possible overseers of the next broadcast, set for Feb. 28.

The 2015 show, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, saw its audience drop nearly 15 percent, to around 36.6 million viewers, from 43 million in 2014. That decline, along with the generally poor reviews the telecast received, added urgency to the Academy’s mission to update what has been viewed in recent years as a shopworn entertainment show.

People briefed on the search said no final decision about the next producer or producers had been reached. An Academy spokeswoman declined to comment on the process, which could accelerate with a planned meeting of the group’s governing board on Tuesday.

But several of those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality strictures, said the Academy’s president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, and executive director, Dawn Hudson, had examined at least a half-dozen possible producers or producing teams, each of which would most likely bring a sharply different approach to the annual awards show. Who remains on the Academy’s shortlist of candidates is not clear, and a wild-card entry remains possible.

A producer who has figured in the search, those people said, is Reginald Hudlin, a filmmaker who earned a reputation for raucous urban humor with the “House Party” films, and who was a producer of “Django Unchained,” which in 2013 won two Oscars and was nominated for five, including best picture.

Mr. Hudlin earned his bones as an Academy insider by producing last year’s Governors Awards ceremony, an autumn tribute that honored Harry Belafonte, Maureen O’Hara, Hayao Miyazaki and Jean-Claude Carrière.

While Mr. Hudlin and other black filmmakers have been increasingly prominent within the Academy, critics have said the group’s membership and tastes do not reflect enough racial diversity. Those claims gained prominence last year when the roster of acting nominees included no black performers, even as “Selma,” about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., joined the eight best picture nominees.

Another prospect for the producing job, according to several people, has been Michael Shamberg, a seasoned filmmaker who lately has been helping BuzzFeed Motion Pictures find its way in the movie world.

Mr. Shamberg has leaned toward youth and cultural edges in films like “Reality Bites” and the coming “Freeheld,” about the real-life struggle of a lesbian couple denied a survivor’s pension in New Jersey. This year he organized an Academy seminar on the future of the movies, and included the BuzzFeed Motion Pictures president Ze Frank among the guests. It is a fair bet that digital outreach would somehow break down the walls between stars and viewers in a Shamberg-produced show.

As for Mr. Hanks, both he and his producing partner, Gary Goetzman, have also been discussed as possible producers by some Academy insiders, though they don’t appear to be in talks for the job. An Academy loyalist, and a member of the governing board, Mr. Hanks has occasionally told the Academy that it could depend on him as an emergency replacement if, in the group’s ultimate nightmare, a host ever dropped out at the 11th hour.

If he and Mr. Goetzman were to assume producing duties this year, it might be a sign that the Academy is counting on their relationships to recruit megastars — and lining up stars at the end of a grueling awards season isn’t as easy as the audience might assume. (One past producer privately joked that his calls were never returned as slowly as when he worked on an Oscar show.)

Mr. Shamberg and a spokesman for Mr. Hanks declined to comment; Mr. Hudlin and Mr. Goetzman did not respond to queries. Also on the list of prospects is Joel Gallen, who is largely known for producing or directing television events like the Comedy Central roast of Justin Bieber and last year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards. Reached by email, Mr. Gallen declined to comment on any possible discussions about the Oscars.

Because Mr. Zadan and Mr. Meron did three shows under a multiyear arrangement, the Academy was spared the toils of a producer search, and it turned early to recruiting a host — something that typically can’t be dealt with until a producer is in place.

In years past, show producers sometimes have not been named until September or October. But growing competition from rival film awards shows, particularly the Golden Globes, has stepped up the pressure on Academy officials to get their program in order before the season’s contenders arrive in force, at film festivals in Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York.

An earlier decision also leaves time for course correction. In 2011, Brett Ratner was named the Oscar show’s producer in early August. But he resigned in November after a controversy over his public use of an antigay slur, and the show’s intended host, Eddie Murphy, departed with him.

Brian Grazer stepped in to produce the show, and Billy Crystal became the replacement host.

Among other possible candidates for the next Oscar producer’s slot, Ms. Isaacs and Ms. Hudson are said to have considered Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, past show producers who proved unavailable until 2017, and Michael De Luca, who recently left an executive job at Sony, and had a blockbuster in “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Mr. Mark did not respond to a query, and Mr. De Luca said in an email that he has already agreed to join Jennifer Todd in producing next year’s Producers Guild of America awards and could not tackle the Oscars at the same time.