Grab your calendar because the 2021 Oscars just got a brand new date.
As has been typically the case in recent decades, the next Academy Awards were scheduled for early 2021—February 28, to be exact. However, as the coronavirus pandemic has continued through the first half of this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday that the next ceremony has been rescheduled to April 25, 2021, the latest date the Academy Awards have ever been held since it was televised. The last time the Oscars took place in April was 32 years ago in 1988.
In addition to the actual ceremony date, the Academy has also pushed back several other related elements, including the eligibility period. Now, any feature films that have been released between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, 2021 are eligible for Academy Awards consideration. The submission deadline for specialty categories, such as Animated Feature Film and Documentary Feature, is Dec. 1, while the submission deadline for general entry categories, like Best Picture and Original Song, is Jan. 15, 2021.
Nominations for the 2021 Oscars will then be announced on March 15, 2021. And, just days after the ceremony takes place inside the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and airs on ABC, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will open on April 30, 2021 instead of the previously scheduled Dec. 14 date.
The move comes months after the pandemic brought production on upcoming projects around the world to a screeching halt and shuttered movie theaters around the country.
