Oscars 2023 moves to late March, keeps 2021 pandemic eligibility rules

Planning is already underway for the 94th Oscars, which can be held on March 27, 2023, the movie academy and ABC mentioned on Thursday.

After a yr of disruption, innovation and catastrophically low scores, the Academy Awards are getting again to enterprise as common. The present will return to the Dolby Theatre for its ABC broadcast and the eligibility window will as soon as once more shut on the finish of the calendar yr.

This previous yr, the academy prolonged the eligibility window into February and cancelled non-televised occasions just like the Governors Awards and the Nominees Luncheon due to the pandemic. All these trimmings are actually again on the schedule, with the Governors Awards set for January 15 and the luncheon to be held on March 7. Nominations can be introduced on February 8.

The academy mentioned, nonetheless, that dates stay topic to alter. The organisation can be acknowledging that the film enterprise continues to be being impacted by the pandemic and are extending the streaming eligibility caveat they adopted final yr into the 2021 awards season. That signifies that movies don’t essentially need to have a theatrical run to qualify and may debut on streaming or video on demand companies.

The tip of March broadcast date is far later than common for Hollywood’s largest awards present. Initially the 94th version was set to air on February 27, however that month can be crowded with main dwell occasions, together with the 2023 Olympics and the Tremendous Bowl.

The viewers for the 93rd Oscars, which was held at Los Angeles’ Union Station in late April, was lower than half of its earlier low, with solely 9.85 million viewers tuning in to observe Nomadland win greatest image. It was par for the course for a pandemic awards present: Each the Golden Globes (6.9 million viewers) and Grammy Awards (9.2 million) had document low audiences as properly.

And subsequent yr can be completely different with out the Golden Globes, which usually airs in early January, stealing among the Oscars thunder. NBC mentioned earlier this yr that it could not air the Golden Globes in 2023 amid controversies and requires reform inside the Hollywood Overseas Press Affiliation, the organisation that places it on.