Just over 2-months removed from the 2021 Academy Awards ceremony, things are back in action with updates coming, not just from the Academy themselves, but also the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Directors Guild of America, regarding updates in rules that could potentially shake the award season up for decades to come. While last year saw an industry united in the alteration of rules in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, this year sees division and conflicting rules that could lead to an even more unpredictable season than last year.
Starting with the Oscars themselves, possibly the biggest news is what is remaining the same rather than what is actually changing. The Academy has officially ruled that even with theaters returning across the United States in a substantial fashion, they will in fact keep the same regulations they held last year as far as eligibility. As long as films were originally meant to have a theatrical release – something still incredibly confusing to regulate or prove – films will not need to have an exclusive theatrical window and instead be allowed to go straight to streaming or VOD platforms. For films wishing to instead have an exclusive theatrical window, the increased list of cities in which one would qualify still remains the same.
As far as what is changing for the Academy, there were major developments in the Best Original Score category which now requires only 35% of a score to be original to qualify for the category. This is a major drop from the previously established 60% rule meaning that more scores than ever will be competing for the category. There also was news that the shortlists for the Best International Feature, Best Live-Action Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Documentary Short Film will be increasing from 10 to 15 allowing a greater number of films to be seen and relevant in the conversation. Considering the normal amount of major releases of quality missing from these lists, this seems like a good move to allow those voices a seat at the table. With the condenses Best Sound category being debuted at the 2021 Oscars, there will also be the return of the Sound bake-offs that will see films present short presentations to Oscar voters showcasing their work in an attempt to prove themselves as worthy nominees and winners.
Specifically, when it comes to the overlooking of an exclusive theatrical window, not everybody will continue this for the 2022 Awards Season. Just days before the Academy released their updated rules, the Directors Guild of America released theirs, including a new rule that any film to release after June 15th will need to have at least a 7-day theatrical window. While this should be no issue for most major releases as even Netflix has had no issues accommodating this in the past, this does pose a danger towards the Warner Bros slate which has same-day HBO Max releases. With the slate including the likes of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho & Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard, it remains to be seen if Warner Bros. will be adjusting their schedule to give these films a qualifying run for the DGAs, or if they will stick firm with their current release plan causing them to miss the important precursor.
While the Golden Globes will not be televised for the 2022 Awards Season and the status of the ceremony happening at all remains up in the air, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has updated its rules also. After the backlash of films like Minari and Parasite missing out on their Best Picture prize due to the rule that Foreign Language Features not being eligible for the category, the group has announced that both Foreign Language and Animated Features will be eligible for the category moving forward. The group also announced that the Best Foreign Language Film category will be renamed to the Best Non-English Language Film category clearly in response to the backlash surrounding Minari’s placement in the category, mixed with the racist roots of the organization being exposed.
While there still is a number of months until the 2021-2022 Awards Season truly kicks off, these rule changes come as the first major step of the journey which will ultimately culminate at the Academy Awards on February 27th, 2022.
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