The Academy Awards organizers reportedly plan to delay the ceremony to May or June to avoid having the event scrapped entirely due to the ongoing pandemic.
- May 12, 2020
AceShowbiz - The 2021 Oscars ceremony could be delayed amid the Covid-19 crisis to prevent organisers from having to scrap plans entirely.
According to Britain's The Sun newspaper, organisers are poised to push back the Academy Awards by almost four months in a bid to save it from being cancelled.
The move reportedly comes after movie studios were told they will have a longer release window for their films to be eligible for nomination as numerous releases, including "No Time to Die", starring Daniel Craig, "Top Gun: Maverick", "Mulan", and "Black Widow", were delayed due to the global pandemic.
A source explained, "The ongoing coronavirus crisis has caused waves in the industry and has decimated plans for so many releases this year. The Oscars organisers have been in talks for weeks about whether the ceremony can go ahead given so many releases have been pushed back."
"There would be a mutiny if changes weren't made and the industry could be totally ravaged if film studios held back their offerings until the 2022 ceremony to be eligible," they continued.
"What they're proposing is pushing back the ceremony, which was going to take place on February 28, to either late May or early June. Doing this means films forced to postpone their release dates can put them out later this year or in early 2021 knowing they will still be eligible for the Oscars."
The insider added, "Film studios have been informed of the plans and are now drawing up their release dates accordingly. But with everything still so up in the air, it's all rather tentative at the moment."
Last month, Academy officials drew up provisional plans to help studio bosses, by allowing films such as "Birds of Prey", which were released directly on streaming channels, to still qualify for the shortlist.
