The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed on Monday that the Oscar nominations will again be delayed, this time to Thursday, January 23—the latest shift on Hollywood’s awards calendar as the industry grapples with the devastating, ongoing impacts of the wildfires raging around Los Angeles. The announcement will be virtual instead of the previously planned in-person event. The window for voting, which remains ongoing, has also been extended through this Friday, January 17 at 5:00pm PST.
“Due to the still-active fires in the Los Angeles area, we feel it is necessary to extend our voting period and move the date of our nominations announcement to allow additional time for our members,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “Additionally, as we want to be sensitive to the infrastructure and lodging needs of the region in these next few weeks, it is imperative that we make some changes to our schedule of events, which we believe will have the support of our industry.”
The Nominees’ Luncheon, a signature pre-Oscars event for all of those recognized with nominations, has been canceled. The Scientific and Technical Awards have been postponed to an undetermined date. The Academy emphasized, however, that the Oscars will still be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theater.
The Academy was originally set to have voting for nominations close this past Sunday, with the initial announcement date set for this Friday. As major fires broke out in the Pacific Palisades and on Los Angeles’ East Side last week, both timelines were extended by 48 hours. “We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California,” Kramer wrote in a letter to members. “So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you.”
Industry guilds representing writers, producers, cinematographers and more followed suit, delaying their own nominations releases. But on Sunday, when the Producers’ Guild abruptly canceled plans to announce just hours before their new planned time—a result of the wildfires’ endurance, and of renewed warnings about dangerous weather conditions for later this week—reality settled in for many that this remained a fluid, tragic situation wherein no plan should be considered set in stone.
The Academy has been monitoring the situation day by day. Many of its members have been directly impacted by the fires, with the submission of ballots now the last thing on some voters’ minds. Vanity Fair has learned that the Academy is committing $750,000 to the Motion Picture Television Fund to help those affected.
A slew of events in Los Angeles, mapped out months in advance to capitalize on the final stage of phase-one Oscar campaigning, were canceled last weekend out of both respect and safety, including a sold-out retrospective series for Timothée Chalamet and a CAA-hosted reception for I’m Still Here, the Brazilian drama surging after star Fernanda Torres pulled off a surprise Golden Globe win. Smaller films often accelerate their campaigns in January, following these boosts in visibility, to compete with larger films with budgets that extend for months.
As of Monday, the campaign trail remains essentially shut down. The assessment of what’s been lost is still just beginning, and continued threatening weather conditions have kept the city on edge. Insiders point to the Critics Choice Awards’ rescheduled date of Sunday, January 26, as a moment when the town may begin coming together again, albeit in a reduced and relatively solemn capacity.
The Sundance Film Festival, meanwhile, announced on Monday that the Park City, Utah showcase for new independent films will launch next week on January 23 as scheduled. “Right now, we may mourn, but we also know it is important to carry on,” CEO Amanda Kelso and festival director Eugene Hernandez said in a letter to attendees. “Despite the challenges so many are confronting, we’re making our final preparations for this year’s Festival, as in times like these, our mission to support artists, uplift their work, and connect to communities is paramount.”
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