What about the Oscars?
Why not play a game? Quickly put together a list of things that have been changed due to the pandemic. No, I get it. That game is not any fun because the list could stretch from here to the moon. Why then would we expect the Academy Awards to be any different? Indeed, the 93rd renewal of the annual Hollywood Celebrates Itself show will be an Academy Award show, unlike any others that have preceded it. It will be partly glitz and partly hope. The Academy Awards and the Covid, combined, will make it so. Here is what Gildshire knows right now.
Oscars postponed to April 2021 due to coronavirus concerns.
And the Oscar goes to…COVID-19. {Applause light on}
Another reminder of how profoundly the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the bright lights of Hollywood. The 93rd Academy Awards are pushed back from February 28 to April 25. In a virtual meeting of the Academy of Arts and Sciences 54-member Board of Governors, the academy power hitters saw a coronavirus resurgence this winter. They decided that it posed too great of a risk to mount such a large-scale event close to the New Year.
What about the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures?
That is a good question. Many of us are looking forward to the museum Grand Opening. Alas, while the Board postponed the Oscars, they made another announcement. It pushed back the debut of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to April 30.
“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,” Academy President David Rubin and Chief Executive Dawn Hudson said in a statement. They went on to say:
“This coming Oscars and the opening of our new museum will mark a {sic} historic moment, gathering movie fans around the world to unite through cinema.”
Earlier, the film academy relaxed its eligibility rules for one year because of the pandemic. This time, films will be allowed to qualify for Oscar consideration without a theatrical release.
With the COVID-19 pandemic showing no sign of abating, for weeks the academy mulled the idea of moving the Oscars. The academy consulted with studios and distributors and also worked closely with the Los Angeles Department of Health. The Health Department advised pushing Oscar Night as far out as possible. In recent years the Academy Awards have been in February or early March, even as a historical precedent for a later date does exist. Throughout the 60s and 70s, the Oscars were more often than not held in April. The first Academy Awards ceremony took place on May 16, 1929.
The future of the Oscars red carpet amid COVID-19 pandemic
Last year the gorgeous Florence Pugh was blissfully unaware of the 93rd Academy Awards and the COVID-19 that would change this year’s ceremony when she walked the red carpet.
It is also unclear how the 93rd Oscars might need to adjust the ceremony and the red carpet show, should social distancing measures still be required. In recent years, the Oscars ratings have steadily ebbed, and the academy has pondered ways to revitalize the show. The Oscars red carpet show is a must, even as glamorous spectacles such as that have been impossible because of the pandemic.
The Academy Awards and the COVID will always be remembered together. Or at least the 93rd renewal of the festivities will be recalled with the coronavirus. But, fingers crossed, perhaps the vaccinations will be in millions of arms by that time. No one hopes that more than The Academy of Arts and Sciences.
