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| The Oscars has been postponed to April 2021 Photo: Prayitno |
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it is postponing the 2021 Oscars for two months until April 25, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement about the 93rd edition of the awards, Academy president David Rubin and chief executive officer Dawn Hudson 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 penalised 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.”
The Governors Awards - which normally take place in the autumn - and the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards presentation have also been postponed to an unspecified later date.
The Academy has extended the release date eligibility rules in recent weeks. A feature film must now have a qualifying release date between January 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021. The submission deadline for the specialist categories - animated feature, documentary feature, the short subject categories and international feature film - is December 1. The submission deadline for general entry categories, including best picture, is now January 15 next year.
The shift marks the latest upheaval in the film calendar this year, which has also seen the cancellation of Cannes and resulted in many other festivals moving into the virtual space.
