The good news is that Oscar is moving forward with plans for the big show on Sunday, April 25th. The bad news is that more than a few nominees may not be there.
Going against the grain of other award programs and the reality of the Covid era, the Academy informed all nominees last week through a letter that Zooming would not be allowed and that all acceptance speeches could only be made by actually participating of the 93rd annual Academy Award in person at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles – one of two locations that AMPAS is employing for the show (the other is Dolby in Hollywood being used for other production elements, like song numbers, etc.). This is causing a headache not only for nominees who would come from international locations, but also for advertisers and studios / distributors who have to pay the bill and deal with the nightmare logistics of taking their candidates to the US and Los Angeles, the variants screw it. The complaints of those on the front lines are high and the Academy has heard directly from them.
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A source with dozens of nominees from around the world told me that the cost of hotel stays for two weeks or more, including the required 10 quarantine days, will “bankrupt” your entire budget, not to mention the problems caused. By some nominees who are working – if they wanted to go to the Oscars, this could mean ending their production for most of April just for quarantine issues that would have to occur both on departure and on return from all international points, many of them like Italy, France, the United Kingdom and more in various stages of blocking or severe travel restrictions.
The UK, for example, is about to charge a £ 5000 fine for travelers caught leaving for anything other than urgent business, medical reasons, etc. Does it escape to Hollywood to win an Oscar related to urgent work? An advertiser told me that he doesn’t know what he’s going to do, but he has a nominee for editing in Greece, a filmmaker in Paris, a nominee for acting in England, another in an “undisclosed” location, but not in Los Angeles, with several named producers in the same boat.
A consultant, irritated by what they call AMPAS “arrogance” for not allowing virtual participation in this unique environment, is advising studios to get a firm response from Oscar producers that this is a final decision and then decide how to proceed with bringing your nominees to LA – or not. “Can we use the Holiday Inn Express?” an employee would have asked. Of course, many filmmakers and actors have strict requirements in their contracts (some getting suites), and why would you want less if you were going to be stuck in your hotel room for at least 10 days?
As for personal advertisers who are always ready to guide their clients through the award process, the Oscar red carpet and other aspects of the ceremony, a virtual meeting to explain the logistics was canceled twice this week, with at least one relations representative a nominee to act saying that he has been informed by the Academy that they will not be accommodated at the Oscars and that “the Academy will take very good care of its client”. You can imagine that it didn’t go well. The representative speculated that some PR will eventually be allowed to enter, saying: “I imagine that with the number of nominees no coming because of all the restrictions, there will be a lot of space. ”The Academy says that only presenters and nominees, with one guest each, will be allowed at Union Station due to social distance and space restrictions.
For a time when this should be important in your career, these Oscar nominations are causing great distress. Emerald Fennell, nominated for three historic Oscars as producer, director and screenwriter for Best Picture nomination Promising Young Woman, is a little nervous about how she will receive the Oscar, as she told me from London this week, when I asked if we would see her at the first Oscar to which she was invited. “I hope so,” she said. “It depends on all the different rules, and if I can enter the country, I will be there, of course. However, I get a little nervous if the rules change and I am not able to. It’s kind of scary now. “
In an interview with Zoom from his native Denmark, Another round Thomas Vinterberg, twice nominated for Direction / International Films, really hopes, and plans, to be at the Oscars, but it is not easy, as he told me yesterday from Copenhagen. “I will be there with 10 days of quarantine. These arrangements are everywhere. We are trying to find that out, ”he said, adding that he is in the process of scripting his first TV series so that logistically he could do this anywhere. “I’m in the mood to write now. And in fact in modern times that can be brought to a hotel somewhere in the USA, I’m curious to see what the show will be like, and how many of us will be there. If I can do this in any legal way, I will show up. “
For those who work in foreign environments, it is frustrating, as an Oscar nominated producer told me by email. “The problem is this – there are still all kinds of travel restrictions for leaving and entering the UK. Even for vaccinated people. There is clearly a gap between policy makers and science and what they now know about the vaccine’s tremendous results. So, we are stuck here, without wives, and somehow we will watch the Oscar like any other civilian to know the results! Since our freedom of movement is highly restricted because of the pandemic and no other reason, of course, we were thinking that there would be the ability to be remote. “
In recent years, the Academy has made a major public effort to diversify and become even more of a global organization than ever before. This resulted in a strong increase in members and nominees on an international basis (see South Korea’s triumph Parasite last year), but it also means that nominees are spread around the world more than ever and getting to Los Angeles for Oscar night can be really scary in a pandemic.
BAFTA is doing a virtual show, just like SAG and all the guilds, just like the Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Emmys did during the pandemic. Oscar wants to be different and avoid the fatigue of Zoom, which is definitely settling in all these shows. However, it may mean that many winners will not say, “I would like to thank the Academy …”. personally OR virtually.
In turn, sources close to the production say it is a fluid day-to-day life, but there are no plans to become virtual at all at the moment. The Academy itself did not comment.