Awards Round-up: Oscars and BAFTAs Push Back Ceremony Dates, Announce New Eligibility Rules

The Oscars and BAFTAs change up their guidelines in the prolonged wake of COVID-19

The two big film awards shows on both sides of the pond are getting quite a shake-up.

The AMPAS announced on Monday, June 15, that the 93^rd Academy Awards has been pushed back from its original date of February 28, 2021, to April 25, 2021. Similarly, BAFTA announced today, Tuesday, June 16, that their award show has moved from February 14, 2021, to April 11, 2021.

As these are two of the most prominent bookends of awards season, many industry insiders are speculating how this will affect the rest of the film industry: from shifting release schedules, to future film festival dates, and everything in-between.

Below are the new eligibility requirements and date changes for each organization.

OSCARS, PART I

The AMPAS Board of Governors first announced new eligibility requirements back on April 28. Some of the rules are temporary and will only affect the 93^rd Academy Awards. Others are more long-standing.

Temporary changes include:

• Films that were previously scheduled for a theatrical release after March 16, 2020 (the date movie theaters in Los Angeles County were required to close due to COVID-19) but instead opted to premiere on a streaming/VOD platform will be allowed to qualify for Best Picture, as long as the film is made available on the Academy Screening Room members-only streaming site within 60 days of VOD release.
  • • This rule will be in effect for the 93^rd Academy Awards only.
    • The Academy will determine the end date of this particular exemption in the future, based on the evolution of the novel coronavirus (California has started to allow movie theaters to reopen in parts of the state, but they are still closed in Los Angeles).
• When movie theaters reopen, the range of Oscar-qualifying theaters will extend beyond Los Angeles County to include the metropolitan areas of New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miama, and Atlanta.
• Films that were set to premiere at Oscar-qualifying film festivals that were since cancelled (i.e. SXSW, Tribeca) will still be eligible for awards as long as they were made available through a secure online alternative (i.e. Prime Video presents the the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection) or a password-protected private screening room.

Long-standing changes are:

• The Sound Mixing and Sound Editing categories will be combined into one award “that emphasizes the team effort” for best achievements in Sound.
• To qualify for Best Original Score, a score must comprise of a minimum of 60% original music. For franchise films and sequels, that percentage is 80%.
• All Academy members will be eligible to take part in the preliminary voting round for nominees in the International Feature Film category. These earlier nominees will be made more readily available on the Academy Screening Room.
• All screeners must include closed captioning.
• This will be the last year that physical screeners will be allowed. For the 94^th Academy Awards onwards, only digital links to materials will be permitted.

OSCARS, PART II

On June 15, the AMPAS announced the ceremony date change from February 28, 2021 to April 25 of the same year. According to Deadline’s Pete Hammond, this is the latest the ceremony will have ever taken place since they first started television broadcasts of it in 1953. (Check his reporting here for more Oscars date trivia.)

In addition, they extended the eligibility window from January 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021 (as opposed to the traditional December 31 cutoff). This will also affect category-specific deadlines down the board, as some have earlier cutoff dates than December 31. However, AMPAS reassures that this will only affect the 93^rd Academy Awards, and that they hope to return to their regular calendar next year.

Some of the key dates are as follows:

February 1, 2021: Preliminary voting begins

February 5: Preliminary voting ends

February 9: Oscar Shortlists Announcement

March 5: Nominations voting begins

March 10: Nominations voting ends

March 15: Oscar Nominations Announcement

April 15: Finals voting begins (also Oscar Nominees Luncheon)

April 20: Finals voting ends

April 25: Oscars ceremony

BATFAS

On June 16, in addition to their delayed ceremony date announcement of April 11, 2021, BAFTA released temporary changes to their eligibility requirements for their 2021 ceremony. Part of these changes will involve an altered eligibility period, which BAFTA will disclose at a later date.

As of this writing, the rule changes include:

• Any film that was in theatrical release when cinemas closed will be eligible for awards, regardless of how many screenings they had.
• Films that had a confirmed theatrical release date during cinema lockdown will be eligible should they chose to release on an approved VOD platform during the eligibility period.
• Films that planned to release during the cinema lockdown period but didn’t have a confirmed release date will still be eligible for awards should they release on an approved VOD service during lockdown. However, if theaters reopen before they release on VOD, they will have to be released theatrically in order to qualify for awards.
• On a date to be determined later, barring the previous two exceptions, all films must be released theatrically during the eligibility period to qualify.
• All titles released theatrically will only have to meet a one-screening-per-day minimum to qualify.
• All titles released on VOD must be available for at least 30 days.
• All qualifying films with theatrical or VOD releases must be available on BAFTA View, the members-only screening site, sometime within 60 days of their initial release and for at least 30 days.

Both the AMPAS and BAFTA have said that these rules are somewhat flexible. It’s a safe bet that, like with everything else, we can expect to see some further shifts as a result of the ever-evolving novel coronavirus pandemic.

Leave your thoughts on the eligibility changes and date shifts to both the Oscars and the BAFTAs (all via Deadline: 1, 2, and 3) and this article below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more awards news can visit our Film Awards Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Flipboard.