The Academy Awards Ceremony Pushed Back to April 2021

Bong Joon-ho at last year's Oscars

Well, it looks like the news just keeps rolling in. Following last week's news that the Best Picture field will return to a 10 nomination system, it looks like they're not done making changes. Given how weird 2020 has been, it makes sense that they would announce that there would be a shift in the Oscar schedule. Because of that, everything has been backlogged well into the year for the first time in decades. For those looking forward to the regular February ceremony, prepare to have to wait a little longer. It has been pushed back almost two months and with that a whole host of dates. Read on to find out what we can (and can't) look forward to in the year ahead.

On the one hand, it felt inevitable that The Oscars would do something like this. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many delays and cancellations throughout the past three months so it stands to reason that films aiming for a Fall release would be set back. The original plan was to allow the qualification of streaming movies to have consideration for the first (and likely only) time in the awards' history. However, that doesn't account for whatever the Fall season would look like. Given that most of the films have been postponed to 2021, one has to ask: what is there to look forward to right now?

In a recent announcement, Academy President David Ruben said:

“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. 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.”

That's right, a lot of the changes are done to promote the opening of the great Academy Museum. I am personally eager to see what that looks like after years of being told that it will be great. Still, the pushback gives some anxiety having to wait until the first quarter of 2021 are through. But before getting into that, here are the dates that are currently planned:

Preliminary voting begins: February 1, 2021

Preliminary voting ends: February 5, 2021

Oscars shortlists announcement: February 9, 2021

Nominations voting begins: March 5, 2021

Nominations voting ends: March 10, 2021

Oscar nominations announcement: March 15, 2021

Oscars nominees luncheon: April 15 2021

Final voting begins: April 15, 2021

Museum gala: April 17, 2021

Final voting ends: April 20, 2021

Oscars: April 25, 2021

Museum public opening: April 30, 2021

As you can guess from reading this, The Governor's Ball will not be happening this year. It makes sense given everything that's going on, though it will be strange to reach the end of this year and have no random Oscar celebration to remind us about the year in film. If anything, that's going to be the weirdest thing about 2020. I don't know if that will mean other awards ceremonies will shift their schedule as well, but having the end of the year events happening has been one of the best parts of my cinematic year for a long time now. 

Also, to get a little bit nitpicky, I am not a fan of the shift. This isn't because it will offset the next Oscar season (it's not like many January movies get nominated anyways), but because I really wanted to see one of the most random years on record. What does an Oscars look like in a pandemic? By capturing films released between January and December of 2020, it had a chance to reflect more clearly what a year defined largely by V.O.D. titles would look like, allowing for a mental shift in Oscar standards to change in more fascinating ways.

Who knows. Maybe we'll get to December and still be in a V.O.D. state of mind. I hope not, but life has been unpredictable this year and nobody can be sure. With that said, I want to see what would happen if The Academy had to vote on streaming titles without having a conventional setting, and that's what this year felt like it would achieve. After all, there have been some great films this past year that couldn't play in theaters: Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Shirley, Da 5 Bloods, and The King of Staten Island are all impressive in their own rights and I feel like they may get ignored if we see the big movies in January overpower things. 

I'm not a fan of the Oscar campaign that launches in the last week of December, specifically the limited releases that play in New York and Los Angeles. If you're doing it solely for qualification, it's devious and desperate. Why not have some confidence to build instead and have your movie stand out? I'm glad it's an approach that has been dying (R.I.P. The Founder), though by extended to January I think we could see a shift that is a bit more annoying. I'm not opposed to the Christmas Day movies, but having Oscar season into January feels sacrilegious. I know it's not much of a window, but if you want to commit to a year-long qualification period, don't change it simply because the pandemic set production back. Consider it a chance to recognize smaller streaming movies that would add diversity to your line-up.

So yeah, the Oscar season just got much longer and I'm both excited and nervous about the road ahead. I'm worried that we'll be burned out by February and just want to get it over with. Also, I'm frankly not sure that I can make Failed Oscar Campaigns last two extra months, so I'll have to plan special columns if I want to make that a reality. Whatever the case may be, I hope this isn't the start of something new and that we're just experiencing a rare shift that only comes because of a pandemic. I'm not entirely opposed to it, but I think it's unfair for films that qualified in the new normal way.