The current health crisis has thrown the film world askew, from completed movies being pushed back as far as a year to movies in the midst of production having to pause rolling cameras. There’s even been the question recently of if the next Academy Awards ceremony would need to be delayed. Sure enough, that’s exactly what’s happened, with a new date being set for the next round of Oscars festivities.
The 93rd Academy Awards was originally set to be televised on February 28, 2021, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that the ceremony will be pushed back to April 25, 2021. As such, other Oscar-related dates have shifted accordingly, as detailed in the following post.
So while the Academy Awards have traditionally been February or March affairs, the insanity of 2020 has resulted in the next ceremony being pushed to late April. As such, the eligibility period has also been extended, meaning that any movie released next January or February could also be eligible for nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, as opposed to movies only released in 2020, just so long as they’re submitted by January 15, 2021.
Here’s what Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson had to next about the next Oscars ceremony being delayed (via Variety):
For over a century, movies have played an important role in comforting, inspiring, and entertaining us during the darkest of times. They certainly have this year. Our hope, in extending the eligibility period and our Awards date, is to provide the flexibility filmmakers need to finish and release their films without being penalized for something beyond anyone’s control. This coming Oscars and the opening of our new museum will mark an historic moment, gathering movie fans around the world to unite through cinema.
It’s also important to note that submissions for speciality categories (i.e. animated feature film, documentary feature, documentary short subject, international feature film, animated short film and live action short film) will need to be turned in by December 1, 2020. As for the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards presentation, which supposed to happen on June 20, that’s been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date.
This marks just the fourth time that an Academy Awards have been delayed, with the previous instances happening in 1938, 1968 and 1981. This latest postponement follows last week’s news that the Academy has set up a task force “to develop and implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility by July 31, 2020,” as well as that starting with the 2022 ceremony, the race will return to a guaranteed 10 Best Picture field.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more Academy Awards-related news in the months ahead. In the meantime, look through our 2020 release schedule to learn what movies are still slated to come out later this year, or you can learn what movies have been pushed back with our delays guide.
