LOS ANGELES (US) – The 2021 Oscars ceremony was postponed to April from February on Monday in the wake of the havoc caused in the movie industry by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ceremony will take place on April 25, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement. It had originally been scheduled for Feb. 28.
The coronavirus epidemic shut down movie theatres across the globe in mid-March and brought film production to a grinding halt.
The Academy also extended the deadline by which movies must be released in order to be eligible for an Oscar nomination to Feb. 28, 2021, from Dec. 31, 2020.
“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 penalised for something beyond anyone’s control,” Academy President David Rubin and Academy Chief Executive Dawn Hudson said in a statement.
Because of the production shutdown, many filmmakers feared their movies would not be finished by the usual year-end Oscar eligibility deadline. Dozens of other movie releases have been moved to 2021.
It is for the fourth time in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards that the date has been changed. Earlier, it was changed in 1938 due to floods in Los Angeles, in 1968 because of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1981 after the attempted assassination of then-President Ronald Reagan.
The change in date is also expected to prompt the Golden Globes and other award shows to also reschedule their events.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) on Monday said it was shifting its film awards ceremony to April 11 from Feb. 14.
Hollywood movies were last week given the green light to resume production in the Los Angeles area with detailed guidelines on social distancing and frequent testing. However, most are not expected to resume until September.
Hollywood hopes the big movie theatre chains will reopen by late July, when thriller “Tenet” and “Mulan” are due to be released.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field
