The 2021 Academy Awards are set to be pushed back four months.
The annual awards ceremony – also known as the Oscars – is usually held at the beginning of each year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic it has now been suggested the 2021 ceremony could be held as late as May or June.
The decision to change up the calendar for the first time in the ceremony’s 93-year history comes as the global health crisis has had a serious impact on the 2020 film release schedule, with many films forced to delay their release dates as cinemas across the world have closed down whilst countries go into lockdown.
Instead, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are giving movie studios a longer release window for their flicks to be eligible for Oscars nominations, which means the delayed movies will still make it into the 2021 awards.
A movie insider told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “The ongoing coronavirus crisis has caused waves in the industry and has decimated plans for so many releases this year. The Oscars organizers have been in talks for weeks about whether the ceremony can go ahead given so many releases have been pushed back.
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“There would be a mutiny if changes weren’t made and the industry could be totally ravaged if film studios held back their offerings until the 2022 ceremony to be eligible.
“What they’re proposing is pushing back the ceremony, which was going to take place on February 28, to either late May or early June. Doing this means films forced to postpone their release dates can put them out later this year or in early 2021 knowing they will still be eligible for the Oscars.
“Film studios have been informed of the plans and are now drawing up their release dates accordingly. But with everything still so up in the air, it’s all rather tentative at the moment.”
The report comes after the Academy drew up provisional plans last month to help studio bosses, including allowing films that have skipped theatrical release and gone straight to streaming sites to still qualify for the Oscars nominations.
READ ALSO: Coronavirus pandemic delays Cannes Film Festival, yet again
And it seems that The Oscars is not the only awards ceremony to be pushed back due to the novel Coronavirus.
The Cannes Film Festival will unveil a selection of movies next month.
The French movie event had initially been moved from 2-23 May to late June due to the coronavirus pandemic but after President Emmanuel Macron announced the country wouldn’t host any festivals or events with large gatherings until at least mid-July, organisers confirmed it would be delayed again.
And now, event bosses have admitted it seems “complicated to organise” a new date for this year, so they will instead present an official film selection, and also collaborate with other events, such as the Venice Film Festival, to present other movies later in the year.
A spokesperson said: “As of today, a physical edition seems complicated to organize, so we are going forward with an announcement of films from the (initial Official) Selection at the beginning of June.”
Rather than opting for a virtual festival, they will instead be organising a “redeployment ‘outside the walls’ (of Cannes), in collaboration with fall festivals.”
This includes Venice, as well as various cinemas.
The clarification comes after Cannes director Thierry Fremaux explained over the weekend that rather than unveiling what would have been the entire Official Selection for the festival, he will only announce a list of movies that were part of the roster and scheduled to be released in theaters between now and next spring.
These films will be given a ‘Cannes 2020’ label and Cannes will then show their labelled films at festivals including Toronto, Deauville, Angoulême, San Sebastian, New York, Busan and Lumière festival in Lyon.
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