Oscars Delayed Until April 2021
Monday, June 15, 2020 at 10:05PM 
Note: This article was written on a very crappy personal day and readers have complained that it is too petulant and that we have larger fish to fry right now (which is very much true). But this is a film/Oscars site so we couldn't not to discuss it. Nevertheless, we will try to keep a wider perspective next time we're upset with AMPAS. That chance will surely come again since to know the Oscars is a perpetual rollercoaster of elation and disappointment. -Nathaniel R
Swift on the heels of great Academy news, we get terrible news. The Oscars will not take place in February 28th as previously announced but will be pushed back two months to April 25th, 2021. (The nominations will be announced on March 15th, 2021 which means our April Foolish predictions now have an excuse for how long they're taking to finish) This also means they're pushing back the opening of the Academy Museum again. Now that will open in late April 2021 to coincide with the presumed Oscar afterglow...
While it is exceedingly rare for an Oscar ceremony to be postponed (this is only the 4th time in history), having the Oscars in April is not actually rare. In fact, from 1959 through 1984 they were usually in April. However April 25th is the latest the Oscar ceremony has ever taken place in the year but for the first four ceremonies when the Academy was just beginning to invent themselves.
Not only will the Oscars be late-late-late this year but the eligibility window will be extended through the end of February. The last time the Oscars did not go by a simple calendar year was waaaaay back at the 6th Academy Awards,which honored films released between August 1932 all the way through to the end of 1933. That 17 month time frame was the longest window ever considered by Oscar voters and it was never to be repeated as Oscar went with that long stretch in order to shift to a perfect calendar year equation beginning with the 1934 Oscars (held in February 1935).
To say that we're disappointed in this latest move by the Academy is an understatement. But they explain it like so:
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"
But why is it penalizing someone to make them compete in the year in which they release?
While this latest move fits with the willy-nilly 'we're making this up as we go along' first six years of the Oscars, it's not in keeping with the general spirit of the Oscars which is to honor a specific film year or the legendary institution they've become. The Oscar's governing body has bowed out of what could have been a fascinating test case in attempting to actually do their job: honoring a film year, picking out its treasures, no matter what that film year offered. Not all film years are created equally (any test drive through history confirms this fact) but every film year has great stuff within it. It ought to be the Academy's job to elevate the great stuff, not to avoid picking through a year to find it whilst hoping that big prestige movies arrive just in time to make your job easier for you if you give them a little more time.
What's more, with theaters scheduled to begin opening up again next month this feels like premature panicking unless the Academy is bowing to a double whammy of anxiety surrounding a second wave of COVID-19 and probable pressure from major studios who do want to push some of their hopefuls into 2021.
But we don't like it.
This will definitely mess up one of the key and most fun elements of Oscar-mania and cinephilia: top ten listing. We here at TFE will be sticking with the calendar year for our own awards lest time and vintage mean nothing. Look, 2020 was never going to be the best film year, given the chaos of shutdowns and unfinished films, but it is surely an interesting one and the Oscars should have sorted through the rubble to find the beauty in what was on and what will be on offer. Sadly they've abdicated some of that responsibility.
This also begs the question of what will become of the 94th Oscars? Will they only honor just a 10 month window in order to return to the calendar year system and their usual February perch?
THOUGHTS?
P.S. It should crack you up to know that the embarrassingly Oscar-obsessed BAFTAs immediately moved their date to April 11th so that they could be right before the Oscars again in an attempt to predict them rather than just to carry out the duty of coming up with their own "best" prizes. There's no word yet on when the Golden Globes, SAG, or Critics Choice ceremonies will be but we suspect they'll also follow the leader because they too, like the BAFTAs, live to try and "predict" the big daddy. Which is sad. How much more interesting might it be if in this next round all the ceremonies were at different times and just did their own things?!
We'll leave you with with trivia...
MOST COMMON DATE TO HOLD THE OSCARS
[TIE] There have five ceremonies each on both March 25th and on March 29th.
ONLY NUMERICAL DAYS ON WHICH THE OSCARS HAVE NEVER BEEN HELD
The 1st and the 12th
BREAKDOWN OF OSCAR CEREMONIES
February - 18 ceremonies
March - 47 ceremonies
April -23, soon to be 24 ceremonies
May - 1 ceremony
November - 3 ceremonies
ONLY OSCAR CEREMONIES NOT HONORING ONE FILM YEAR
1st -WINGS (no precise eligibility window but honoring the films of 1927 and 1928)
2nd -THE BROADWAY MELODY (12 month window - August 1st, 1928 to July 31st, 1929)
3rd -ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (12 month window - August 1st, 1929 to July 31st, 1930)
4th -CIMARRON (12 month window - August 1st, 1930 to July 31st, 1931)
5th -GRAND HOTEL (12 month window - August 1st, 1931 to July 31st, 1932)
6th -CAVALCADE (17 month window - August 1st, 1932 to Dec 31st, 1933)
93rd -winner tba (14 month window - January 1st, 2020 to February 28th, 2021)
94th -winner tba (eligibility period tbd)
Reader Comments (59)
Thanks for the clarification re: my comment, Nathaniel!
Remember there's all this covid stress and political unrest on top of Nathaniel's notoriously iffy immune system. Let's cut him slack this once, don't let a bit of tone deafness affect the sweet song of TFE. xox
We forget that very privileged people have emotions and bad days too. It can get blue inside of their bubbles as well.
Does this mean we won't see any more of this website's Oscar nomination predictions any more cause of this?
Nathaniel, sorry if my comment came across as critical. Hope you have a happier day today.
I geek out at Oscar trivia as much as the next person and I don't like the irregularities. But there are lots of them (song category, makeup and hair, combining the sound categories) and the change to the eligibility dates is the latest one. All hopefully fun to consider for the history books in years to come.
Nathaniel went full on asymmetrical bang Karen and would like to speak to the manager of the Academy immediately!
(Bit tantrum-ish of him, but I lowkey live for petty Nathaniel)
hi nathaniel! I'm guessing most of the "people" on that pile on are a single troll (a typical drag race toxic fanboy), so you shouldn't make much of it :P ... I for one agree with most of what you say here (I can't remember everything because I read the article hours ago and got hooked on the drama in the comments, my bad), specially regarding the mess that is the change of the elegibility period.. I mean, what's the point? they only nominate movies that are released in the last three months of the year, so in a best case scenario (that we get to have a relatively normal last quarter of the year) the nominations wold pretty much be the same they would've been in a regular year. Also, sticking to the normal dates wouldve make the choices for best picture a more faithful representation of what the actual filmgoing year was: we were pretty much starved for regular studio big sleek movies and had to dive a little deeper in the indies and foreing stuff and things we probably woulnt have considered in other years. Hope you're doing ok!
Nathaniel is a passionate Oscar person he has a right to be upset.
And yes I understand he was over the top, but I understand his place in the world and his fortunate nature to focus so much of his passion on a joyous love of his.