UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
The Future of the Oscars
With movie theaters closed since March, we’ve all been wondering what’s going to happen with awards shows. And, more specifically, what’s going to happen to the Oscars? The Academy Awards organization requires that all films have at least a seven-day theatrical run in Los Angeles to be eligible for a nomination. With theaters possibly not reopening at all this year, only a handful of films actually had a theatrical release before the pandemic forced theaters to shutter. If the Academy sticks by its old rules, should we expect an Academy Awards broadcast where the Best Picture race is among the movies that came out in January, February and early March? For reference, the films that come out in the beginning of the year are often not Oscars contenders. If that is how it decides to proceed, we may be looking forward to a Best Picture race among Sonic The Hedgehog, The Invisible Man, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, and Emma.
The Oscars can always choose to ignore the theatrical eligibility rule and look at all the new movies that come out on VOD and other streaming platforms. With all the theaters closed, studios have been releasing films early to VOD and other streaming platforms. Netflix is still dropping new content regularly and if the requirement for a weeklong theatrical run is removed, that opens up the possibility of any new films to receive a nomination. For example, our recent PROVOKR Pick Sergio, starring Ana de Armas, could be a contender, or Extraction with Chris Hemsworth could be up for a Visual Effects or Sound Mixing nomination.
Maybe the Oscars will just decide to forgo awards for this year entirely and skip the ceremony. We certainly hope they don’t decide to go down that path. Whatever the awards turn out to be, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Will we be watching one of the most prestigious award shows streamed via Zoom like Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday concert? Maybe we’re in for a repeat of the 31st Academy Awards, in 1959, when show producer Jerry Wald started cutting numbers willy-nilly and ended up cutting so much that the show finished 20 minutes early. To make up for that, Jerry Lewis came on stage and attempted to fill the remaining minutes. The 31st Academy Awards didn’t have a singular host and we may not have one in 2021.
