Oscars 2021 Postponed Due to Covid-19

I will completely admit it...I love award season, and the Oscars are by far my favorite. It's the Super Bowl for movie junkies like myself. The glitz, the glamour, and that's just on the red carpet. I love Oscar night, and now it looks like I'll have to wait a little longer for the big bash. The 2021 Oscars have now been postponed by eight weeks. Personally I think it may be a bit premature, but there is some merit behind the decision.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that it is pushing back the date of the 93rd Academy Awards from Feb. 28 to April 25, 2021. The board of governors made the decision based on the thought that there could be a potential resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall and winter. With the event being so large and in February, they felt it best to push it back a few months.

Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic health concerns, the industry itself has taken a huge hit with theaters closed to movie goers and production on halted on films resulting in pushed back release dates from many major studios. Because of that, the eligibility period for Oscars consideration has been extended beyond the standard end-of-year deadline: to qualify, a feature film must now have a release date between Jan. 1, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021.

“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.”

Just this week it was announced that several blockbuster films have had to delay their premieres. Wonder Woman 1984 moved from the middle of August to early October. And The Matrix 4 was been delayed a full year with a new premiere date being April 1, 2022. With most theaters across the country still idle, it's hard to say when film fans will get a glimpse of those anticipated upcoming attractions.

This is actually the fourth time in its history, that the Oscars have been postponed. Although it has never been this far in advance, the awards were pushed back a week because of disastrous flooding in Los Angeles in 1938. Back in 1968, they were delayed two days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They were delayed in 1981 for 24 hours after President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington D.C. The 1981 decision was made four hours before the broadcast was scheduled to begin.