Nominations will instead be announced on Jan. 23, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday.
“We are all devastated by the impact of the fires and the profound loss suffered by so many in our community,” said Academy President and CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang. , in a joint press release.
“The Academy has always been a unifying force within the film industry, and we are determined to remain united in the face of challenges.”
– Excerpt from a press release from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
With fires still active in the Los Angeles area, the film academy also extended the voting period for its members until Friday. Originally, the nominations were to be announced that morning.
The Oscars organization also made the decision to cancel its annual nominees luncheon, a non-televised event best known for the “class photos” it produces each year. The Scientific and Technical Oscars, which were originally scheduled to take place on February 18, will be postponed to a later date.
-The 97th Academy Awards will still take place on March 2, at the Dolby Theater, with a live telecast on ABC starting at 7 p.m. ET and a live broadcast on Hulu.
Not the first postponement
Oscar nominations have been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ceremony itself had also been delayed, something that had happened several times before: it was pushed back a week due to the catastrophic Los Angeles floods of 1938.
In 1968, it was postponed for two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And in 1981, it was postponed for 24 hours after President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington.
The 1981 decision was made four hours before the broadcast was scheduled to begin.
