UPDATE: With the big dog of film awards events shifting its schedule, others are starting to follow suit. First among them? The BAFTAs, which is switching from a 14 February date to 11 April. We'd expect the Indie Spirit Awards to follow suit, most likely to its usual spot the day before the Oscars.
And so falls the latest domino for the entertainment industry. Back in May, word arrived that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was, somewhat predictably, considering delaying the Oscars in 2021 because of the Covid world situation. Now we know that the ceremony will happen – assuming things settle down – on 25 April next year.
That's a shift from the planned 28 February date, and with it comes some new eligibility dates for movies that want to be considered for the awards. Feature films must now fall within 1 January 2020 and 28 February. "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. 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," Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement. "This coming Oscars and the opening of our new museum will mark an historic moment, gathering movie fans around the world to unite through cinema."
Slightly more up in the air is what format the ceremony might take when it is broadcast. Whether it'll end up being a virtual show or back to its full audience status hasn't been decided.
This is actually the fourth time the ceremony has been postponed; they were first delayed in 1938 after massive flooding in Los Angeles. In 1968, they were put on hold after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and again in 1981 following an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.