Director Steven Soderbergh at the 76th Venice Film Festival, September 1, 2019. -

LAURENT VU

With the Covid-19 pandemic, the most prestigious cinema awards ceremony in the United States will experience a somewhat particular format for its 93rd edition.

Also with a messed up schedule, the next Oscars ceremony will be led by director Steven Soderbergh, known in particular for his disaster film

Contagion

, its organizers announced on Tuesday.

Relaxed rules

The coronavirus which is shaking up Hollywood and the entire calendar of the film industry has forced the Academy of Oscars to postpone its next edition, now scheduled for April 25, 2021, and to relax the criteria for competing, at a time when most cinemas remain closed to the public.

The format of the ceremony (totally virtual or not) is still undetermined at this stage but the Academy unveiled Tuesday the trio "dream thought to respond directly" to the unusual situation and design a show followed around the world.

To organize this ceremony of a new kind, Steven Soderbergh, crowned best director at the Oscars for his film

Traffic

(2000), will be supported by the former producer of the Grammy Awards Jesse Collins and the producer Stacey Sher (

Django Unchained

).

Soderbergh and Sher have already worked together in the past, on

Erin Brockovich

and

Contagion

, now praised for having predicted, in 2011, a large part of the aspects dictated by the current pandemic: social distancing, improvised hospitals and morgues or the vaccine race.

The American director was even chosen this year by the Hollywood Producers' Association to lead a “crisis unit” responsible for organizing the resumption of cinematographic activities.

Enthusiastic and terrified

“We are as excited as we are terrified,” Steven Soderbergh, Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher said in a statement.

"Because of the extraordinary situation we all find ourselves in, we have a chance to take a new interest in films and the people who make them, and we hope to create a show that resembles the films we love," they continue.

The organizers of the Oscars have yet to say whether they are considering a ceremony with stars present physically, 100% virtual (like that of the Emmy Awards 2020), or a mixture of the two.

Most of California, and Los Angeles in particular, has just entered new containment.

In addition, the deadline for applying has been extended by two months, at the end of February.

Exceptionally this year, the Academy of Oscars will authorize films released directly on video-on-demand platforms to compete, without going through cinemas.

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  • United States

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Hollywood

  • Cinema

  • Oscars