Awards Season 2021

I'm fairly certain I felt some of your blood run cold at the mention of "awards season".

What? You may be crying. Awards season stuff already? But it's only June! This festival of self-congratulation doesn't kick off til November, surely! What's going on?

Well... in these uncertain times we find ourselves in, the usual structures and strictures have been overturned and "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world". This news came out late last night here in the UK so I couldn't include it yesterday's State Of Play article. Probably for the best as there was a LOT of info in that!

Anyway, to my point (and I do have one)... 

Yesterday (June 15th), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Scientists (AMPAS) voted on a new date for the 93rd Academy Awards. It will now take place on Sunday April 25th 2021, eight weeks from its original date of Sunday February 28th. 

The Oscar nominations will be announced on Monday March 15th 2021.

In a statement from the Academy, AMPAS president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson noted the following: 

"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 isn't the first time that the Oscars have moved their broadcast date: in response to major events - such as severe flooding in Los Angeles in 1938, the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, and the attempted assassination of US President Ronald Reagan in 1981- the Academy made the decision to postpone the events in those respective years. So it was going to be a no-brainer for them to do it again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In light of this, the Academy have also changed their qualifying release deadline. Usually, the deadline is 31st December, but for the 93rd Academy Awards it will be extended to Sunday 28th February 2021. So, any film that has had a qualifying run in that time (which currently means a film has to be shown in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a theatrical qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days, during which period screenings must occur at least three times daily) can be eligible for Best Picture. 

The Academy have also expanded their definition of "qualifying theaters" to include venues in other cities, including New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. They're also waiving the demand that documentaries have both an L.A. and a New York run in order to be considered. 

They'd previously announced a big change in relation to films that would have had a theatrical release but can't due to cinemas being closed. Usually films that only appear on streaming services are ineligible for consideration, but- until further notice- streaming-only films can be eligible but "must be made available on the secure Academy Screening Room member-only streaming site within 60 days of the film’s streaming or VOD release". 

Other rmajor awards bodies, such as the Golden Globes, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, and BAFTA have all already adopted new guidelines which relax their rules regarding commercial streaming/VOD releases, so it makes sense. 

Speaking of BAFTA, this morning (16th June), the announcement was made that the 2021 BAFTA Film Awards will also move; they will now take place on Sunday April 11th 2021 (keeping with recent tradition that the BAFTAs predate the Oscars by two weeks). They're the first of the major awards bodies to announce a shift in date in light of the change in the Oscars, so expect the others to follow suit. 

Decisions have also been made to cancel the 2020 Governors Award gala in November (where the Academy Honorary Awards, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award are handed out), and postpone the 2020 Scientific and Technical Awards presentation (which was due to take place on Saturday June 20th). The flagshop Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will now open to the public on April 30th 2021 instead of December 14th this year. 

In other news, from 2021, the Academy will be merging its Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing awards to one award: Best Achievement in Sound. It's also going to be the last Oscars where physical DVD screeners and other hard-copy materials will be distributed, instead pressing for digital materials instead. 

As for how this will effect the Oscars going forwards? Who know? (And a lot of people might say: who cares?) 

The 94th Academy Awards were previously announced to take place on February 22nd 2022, but the Academy has opened the door for a new date. There's also been an announcement that- from 2022- the Academy will commit to 10 Best Picture nominees a year, rather than basing the number of nominees on the members' preferential voting. 

The 2010 and 2011 awards both had a fixed 10 Best Picture nominations (changed from the fixed five due, it is generally believed, to The Dark Knight's exclusion from the top prize in 2009), but from 2012- since the rules changed to allow anywhere between five and ten Best Pictures- it's fluctuated between eight and nine Best Picture nods a year. 

It's a brave new world, my friends, and we must adapt to survive. I'll leave you with this quote from an anonymous awards consultant which I think sums it up nicely: 

“Who knows what awards season is going to look like?” 

Who indeed.