In 93 years of existence, the Oscars have been postponed by shootings 鈥� the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the attempted killing of Ronald Reagan 鈥� and by a flood, when 1938 rainstorms overwhelmed the Los Angeles River. Sunday鈥檚 ceremony will be the first Academy Awards delayed by a pandemic.
After a year that erased movie titles from marquees and sent seismic shockwaves through Hollywood, the show is going on 鈥� two months later than usual, in a crowdless ceremony at Los Angeles鈥� Union Station and with a batch of nominees that have barely played in movie
That this is all very strange goes without saying. Given such an unusual year, this year鈥檚 awards have been called the 鈥淎sterisk Oscars.鈥� But there is reason to believe, and even to hope, that some of this year鈥檚 changes are here to stay.
The broadcast, beginning 8 p.m. EDT Sunday on ABC after a red-carpet pre-show, will be the most transformed in decades. The show鈥檚 producers, led by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, are pledging an entire makeover, one perhaps long overdue for an institution resistant to innovation. They plan to treat the awards more like a movie, including shooting it in 24 frames-per-second, rather than the typical 30. Zooms are strictly forbidden. Instead, tested and quarantined maskless nominees will gather at the downtown train station, while satellite feeds connect others from around the world.
On the heels of a humbling year, the Oscars 鈥� usually a frothy night of self-congratulation 鈥� this year may feel more like a therapeutic rally for an industry in the midst of convulsive change.
Just the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards saw one of Los Angeles鈥� most iconic movie
鈥淓ven as the pandemic is winding down, I don鈥檛 know that we鈥檙e going to return to business as usual,鈥� said Darnell Hunt, dean of UCLA's College of Social Sciences, who studies Hollywood.
That鈥檚 good news, too. 2020 saw, Hunt says, 鈥減rofound diversity鈥� unlike any year before. In a study released Thursday and authored by Hunt and Ana-Christina Ram贸n, researchers found that 42% of roles overall and 39.7% of lead roles in 2020 films were played by actors of
There are many caveats. Representation still lags behind the camera and among executives. With many of the biggest studio films put on hold, smaller, lower-budget films 鈥� many of them streamed 鈥� were much of 2020鈥檚 atypical output. But the diversity of those films has also transferred to the Oscars. In recent years, the film academy 鈥� which this year extended eligibility by two months and to films that bypassed movie
A record nine of the 20 acting nominees are non-white. If Viola Davis ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Chadwick Boseman ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Yuh-Jung Youn ("Minari") and Daniel Kaluuya ("Judas and the Black Messiah") all win 鈥� as they did at the Screen Actors Guild Awards 鈥� it would be the first time people of
More women are nominated than ever before. Two 鈥� Emerald Fennell (鈥淧romising Young Woman鈥�) and Zhao 鈥� are nominated for best director for the first time. (Only five women have ever been nominated until now.) Zhao, the clear front-runner, is poised to be only the second woman to ever win the award, and the first woman of
Yes, it's an odd year. But with a class of widely admired films and roundly applauded nominees from groups that have historically been marginalized by the academy, a sea change in Hollywood is set to stirringly take the stage.
鈥淭his is clearly a watershed moment for the Oscars,鈥� says Hunt. 鈥淚t shows us what鈥檚 possible. If you go for generations without ever acknowledging the actors, director and writers of
Streaming 鈥� 鈥渁 different animal,鈥� says Hunt 鈥� has played a major role in making the film industry more inclusive. But it鈥檚 also disrupted and morphed movie culture. The Oscar nominees, like most films in the past year, were watched largely at home in more solitary settings than the packed
According to a survey last month of 1,500 active entertainment consumers by the research firm Guts + Data, not many people are familiar with this year鈥檚 Oscar nominees. Some 35% hadn鈥檛 heard of any of the eight films up for best picture. Warner Bros.鈥� 鈥淛udas and the Black Messiah鈥� ranked highest with 42% awareness but only 12% had watched it. Sunday鈥檚 lead-nominee, Netflix鈥檚 鈥淢ank,鈥� was unfamiliar to 82% of respondents.
You could chalk some of that up to people having their attention elsewhere during a global pandemic. But some believe cinemas are the missing link. On Sunday, Patrick Corcoran,
鈥淚 think people already feel that,鈥� says Corcoran. 鈥淚t鈥檚 why the ratings for movie awards shows have fallen so precipitously this year 鈥� movie
Award show ratings, along with everything else on linear television, had been declining before the pandemic. Last year鈥檚 Oscar broadcast, in which Bong Joon Ho's 鈥淧arasite鈥� triumphed, had the smallest U.S. audience ever, with 23.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.
But ratings have nosedived this year. The Golden Globes dropped 63% to 6.9 million viewers. The Grammys fell 51% to 9.2 million. The Oscars are sure to sink to their lowest audience ever. Less clear is if that鈥檚 part of a downward trend 鈥� or another asterisk.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 worry about it,鈥� says Soderbergh, who says he鈥檚 focused on putting on the best show possible. 鈥淭he larger issue of whether this is a secular shift or a cyclical shift, we don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 still too early to tell. But it doesn鈥檛 really meet my metric for tragedy or outrage.鈥�
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
