It seems that the negative effects of the Corona pandemic on the film sector will not stop soon, as the Academy of Moving Arts and Sciences (Oscars) announced that its award ceremony will be postponed to April 25, 2021 instead of the pre-determined date of February 28 of the same year.

The decision came after a hypothetical meeting using the "Zoom" app that brought together 54 Academy members including bright names like Stephen Spielberg, Laura Derne and Whoopi Goldberg, where everyone agreed that it was dangerous to hold such an event in February.

In order for the academy to reach this decision, I discussed with both studios and distributors about the time it would take for films to be shown, and the Los Angeles Department of Health advised to postpone the appointment as much as possible given the ongoing uncertainty about the epidemic's evolution.

General major changes

The decision included several other aspects other than changing the date of the ceremony, including extending the eligibility period for Academy Award nominations to the period between January 1, 2021 to February 28, and short lists of potential candidates will be announced on February 9, and final nominations On March 15, the decision also affected the postponement of the opening of the Academy’s museum from December 14 to April 30.

The Corona epidemic has brought about another big change before in the rules for qualifying for Academy Awards, as it has become more flexible this year because of the pandemic, and for the first time it has become possible to run films that have not been shown at all in theaters.

For many years, the Academy’s rules insisted on screening for at least a week in one of Los Angeles theaters until the film became searchable, which made online platforms like Netflix offer their films a short show so that they could run for the most important cinematic award, but of course it no longer makes sense to insist on this. The condition is that cinemas around the world will be closed.

The fourth time in history

Although this change is unusual, it is not the first in history, as this is the fourth time that the Academy Awards have been postponed.

The first was in 1938 as a result of a flood in Los Angeles, again in 1968 due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and the third in 1981 after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

Even with regard to extending the eligibility period, it is not the first precedent for it in the award's history. In the sixth session, the eligibility period was extended to 17 months, between August 1, 1932 and the end of December 1933.

It is also not the first time that an award ceremony has been held in April, as this was the deadline for award awards for many years, including the entire decade of the sixties, and several years from the seventies and eighties, and was exchanged between March and April after that , Until the new millennium, after which the ceremony was scheduled for around February every year.

This change will not only affect the Academy Award, but the entire awards season (networking sites).

The award season is broken

This change will not only affect the Academy Award, but also the entire season of the awards. The distribution of the rest of the awards of the year, such as the Golden Globe, the British BAFTA, and others, usually takes place a few weeks before the Oscars, and then these committees will have to change their dates soon.

As for the Emmy Awards, which are scheduled to be held on the twentieth of next September, they are still on time with the announcement of the committee responsible for them that until now, a safe method has not been found that allows the holding of the ceremony, but the next ceremony for distributing the prizes that takes place every year has been canceled, while The Tony Award, which was due to be held on June 7th, was postponed indefinitely.

On the other hand, festivals and other cinematic events are still not decided what to do this year, such as the Festival of Venice, Toronto and Telluride, where each of them still maintains the original planned date. But of course, changes are expected, as was the case with the Cannes Festival, which was postponed and then canceled permanently.