Culture

Many movies have had their screenings and launches postponed this year, so it’s no surprise that even Hollywood’s awards season has been delayed next year. Typically, the shows run early in the year but due to everything that has transpired this year, these are the details on the awards that have been postponed. Awards season might just have been changed forever.

The Academy Awards 

With many studio blockbusters and indie arthouse movies forced to push back their release dates until theaters reopen, the cut-off date for Oscar-eligible films has also been extended from 31 December 2020 to 28 February 2021.

“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,” said Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson in a statement.

It’s true! Next year’s #Oscars will happen on April 25, 2021.

Here’s what else you need to know:

– The eligibility period for the Oscars will be extended to February 28, 2021
– Nominations will be announced on March 15, 2021
– @AcademyMuseum will open on April 30, 2021 pic.twitter.com/cTsqOfsf8k

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) June 15, 2020

The movie industry’s biggest night was originally scheduled for 28 February 2021. No decision has yet been taken on whether it will remain a live, star-studded ceremony, or shift to a “virtual” presentation as many events have done so far.

Most movie theaters in the US remain closed, with fears of a second wave of COVID-19 cases growing. For Malaysia, cinemas are set to open on 1 July 2020, in case you’ve been missing out on the movie theatre experience.

The Academy, seen as the apex body of the Hollywood film industry, had already eased some eligibility rules in April, allowing movies that skip the big screen and appear on streaming platforms to contend for Oscars this year. This recent move was prompted by concerns that a field consisting only of films released in 2020 would not be as broad or competitive as in previous years.

The Academy Awards have been postponed thrice before: after Los Angeles flooded in 1938, Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in 1968 and the shooting of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but never by more than a week. The Academy’s long-delayed Museum of Motion Pictures, previously scheduled to open in Los Angeles this December, will now open on 30 April 2021.

“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,” said their statement. “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.”

Television’s Primetime Emmys ceremony is still scheduled to take place in September, with discussions over format ongoing. The Television Academy said that its Creative Arts Emmys – dozens of technical awards, usually handed out the weekend before the main Emmys – will be replaced with a “virtual event”.

Critics’ Choice Awards

The next Critics Choice Awards ceremony to honour the best series and films of the previous year will be held on 7 March 2021 and not in January 2021 as it usually would be. 

While the organisers preferred to postpone the date of the 26th Critics Choice Movie Awards, the show will still take place in the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport, a venue that also served for this year’s ceremony. Actor Taye Diggs, best known from Private Practice, will return as presenter for the third consecutive year.

“Now more than ever, people are turning to film and television as a source of comfort, as a means of education, and as a way to connect,” said Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin. “With the revised timeline, we are looking forward to celebrating all of the brilliant new work created during this extended season.”

Exceptionally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the shooting and release of many feature films, the 2021 Awards will accept in competition films released between January 2020 and February 2021. However, there will be no changes with regard to television. Only shows that were broadcast during 2020 will be eligible.

The last Critics Choice Movie Awards ceremony in January this year, singled out Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho as Best Director, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Best Picture, and Joaquin Phoenix and Renée Zellweger as Best Actor and Actress.

The Golden Globes

The Globes, which are typically held in early January annually, will take the weekend previously reserved for the Oscars, which last week were delayed by eight weeks to 25 April 2021. In its 78th season, it will be hosted by comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

“The HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) will provide further guidance around eligibility, voting period, and revised nominations announcement timing in the coming weeks,” said the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in a statement.

In an exceptional move, the Academy Awards have extended the cut-off date for Oscar-eligible films by two months, to the end of February. There has yet to be confirmation regarding any changes to the awards’ eligibility period but the HFPA was the first major show to loosen its rules for this year due to the pandemic.

It announced in March that films that had planned “a bona fide theatrical release,” but were forced to release only on streaming because of the coronavirus, will be permitted at the Globes. In regular years, most award shows require movies to be shown in Los Angeles theaters for a minimum period to be considered. And while previously studios had to invite HFPA voters to private screening events, online links or DVDs will be permitted during the pandemic lockdown.

Source: AFP Relax News