The 2021 Academy Awards Will Be Delayed Until April
Next year's Oscars ceremony - originally set for February - will be moved to April, whilst the film eligibility period will be extended
Given the chaotic state of the movie industry as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it seemed inevitable that there would be repercussions come award season.
It's not surprising, then, to learn that the Academy of Motion Picture Science and Arts have announced their decision to push back the 2020 Oscars to April 25th from the original air date of February 28th.
The Academy also announced that the eligibility window for film consideration would be extended from December 31st to February 28th.
The official statement read: “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. 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.”
Whilst this will give more films the chance to compete at the 2020 awards, one has to wonder whether it would have been more interesting for the Academy to simply go ahead as planned. It could have made for one of the weirder and more diverse Oscar ceremonies in years, whilst paying tribute to the array of smaller films that actually released within the original window.
