The 93rd Academy Awards (Oscar 2021) might be postponed due to the COVID-19 impact on the industry. Furthermore, the Academy’s Board of Governors has modified the rules and eligibility for the film submission process. Read below.

Oscar 2021

The 93rd Oscars telecast is scheduled to air Sunday, February 28, 2021. However, the impact due to COVID-19 can’t be ignored. We wrote an article about how will the pandemic change the 93rd Academy Awards short film submission requirements. Read it here: Coronavirus and Oscar 2021: How Will it Change the Short Films Submission Requirements? Although we have nine months until the 93rd Academy Awards, the submission process starts now. The conventional process dictates that top movies play top fall film festivals as they seek buyers, audiences, and media reactions. Those that play well hire publicists and marketers to craft campaigns, which can bring filmmakers and talent the kind of career recognition that only the Oscars can bring. However, COVID-19 restricts film festivals from being Oscar’s engine, as there are no festivals due to social distancing regulations. Moreover, the rapid shutdown of film productions and theaters has blended the Academy Awards rules and regulations especially regarding the submissions process. Thus, The Academy needs to re-thing and re-calculate the route of submission and films’ rules and eligibility.

93rd Academy Award might be postponed

According to the Variety report the Academy is considering postponing the February 28th show. It’s important to mention that Oscar has been postponed just three times in its history but has never been canceled. Nevertheless, insiders told Variety that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is considering rescheduling film’s biggest night. A source who spoke anonymously to the outlet said it is “likely” the Oscars will be postponed due to the global health crisis, although no formal date has been thrown around as of yet. As stated by Academy president David Rubin: “It’s impossible to know what the landscape will be. We know we want to celebrate film but we do not know exactly what form it will take.”

It’s impossible to know what the landscape will be like. We know we want to celebrate film but we do not know exactly what form it will take.

Academy president David Rubin

Streamed films are eligible for Oscar 2021

A document published last month by the Academy’s Board of Governors, confirms new rules and regulations for the 93rd Academy Awards (Oscar 2021). The document is titled:” For This Awards Year Only, Streamed Films To Be Eligible for Oscars”. Current Academy Awards rules (under Rule Two, Eligibility) require that a film be shown in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a theatrical qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days, during which period screenings must occur at least three times daily. Until further notice, and for the 93rd Awards year only, films that had a previously planned theatrical release but are initially made available on commercial streaming or VOD service may qualify in the Best Picture, general entry and specialty categories for the 93rd Academy Awards under some conditions which are described on the document.

The number of Oscar-qualifying theaters has been expanded

For films to more easily meet theatrical exhibition requirements when theaters reopen, the Academy also will expand the number of qualifying theaters beyond Los Angeles County to include venues in additional U.S. metropolitan areas: the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia.

The Academy also will expand the number of qualifying theaters beyond Los Angeles County

Final thoughts

As explained, in the era of the pandemic film festivals are neutralized as Oscar’s engine. Moreover, theaters are closed and cinema productions are on hold. Thus a new set of rules, regulations, and eligibility regarding the submission process of the Oscar, which is the supporting pillar of the industry, must be established. Indeed this new set of rules by the Academy’s Board of Governors allows the expansion of eligibility and also to include streaming films to qualify in the Best Picture category. Will Netflix dominate the 93rd Academy Awards? Let’s wait and see.