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Oscar voters — many of whom live in Southern California — are getting a bit more time to register their opinions due to Los Angeles wildfires.
On Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the extended voting period in a letter to Academy members, which EW has reviewed. Nominations voting opened Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. PT, but the deadline for those votes has been pushed back by two days, from Sunday, Jan. 12 to Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 5 p.m. PT.
“We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California,” the letter read. “So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you.”
As a result of the elongated voting period, the Academy is also moving back the date of the nominations announcement. Originally slated for Friday, Jan. 17, the nominees will now be announced on Sunday, Jan. 19. Further details on the announcement day are still to come.
Additionally, an International Feature Film Shortlist screening originally scheduled for Wednesday evening will be rescheduled for a later date in the coming weeks. Several nominee presentations, known as Bake-Offs, have also been canceled. Instead, the Sound Branch, Makeup Artists and Hairstylist Branch, and Visual Effects Branch will have an opportunity to review clips from each presentation via the internal platform of the Academy Screening room.
Kevin Winter/Getty
The nominations voting and related events aren’t the only things that have been altered by the devastating wildfires across Los Angeles county. Many series halted production for the day, including Grey’s Anatomy, Abbott Elementary, Suits LA, and Hacks.
Other awards shows also pivoted, with the SAG Awards shifting their in-person nomination announcement scheduled for this morning to a virtual press release. The annual AFI Awards Luncheon, set for Friday, has been canceled, and the Critics Choice Awards, originally set to take place Sunday, have been postponed to Jan. 26 due to the impact of the fires.
Additionally, several starry premieres were scuttled in the wake of the natural disaster, including those for Wolf Man, Unstoppable, The Pitt, and Better Man.
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The Academy is used to adjusting their Oscars schedule for extenuating circumstances. In 1938, they postponed the Oscars ceremony due to a flood and in both 1968 and 1981. The ceremony was also postponed due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, respectively.
Most recently, the Academy postponed the 2021 Academy Awards from February to April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of now, the ceremony will still take place as scheduled on March 2.
