Image: pixabay
What: The 93rd Academy Awards
Air date: April 25, 2021 at 8 p.m. EST
Without movie theaters and flashy red carpet premieres, 2020 left many a production company with a tough choice: either release your movies straight to streaming services, or shelve them temporarily while the world waits out the pandemic. So where does that leave this year’s Oscars?
Surprisingly, the 93rd Academy Awards are set to go on like normal — well, mostly normal. Normal-ish. Here’s what you need to know about the biggest night in film ahead of the ceremony:
How can I watch the Oscars?
The Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and Los Angeles’ Union Station on Sunday, April 25, with red-carpet arrivals beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST and the hostless ceremony slated for 8 p.m. EST. You can tune in on ABC’s website and the ABC app through your TV provider, or stream the night’s events on AT&T TV ($69.99/month), Hulu Live TV ($64.99/month), or YouTube TV ($64.99/month).
On a budget? Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV both offer free weeklong trials for new subscribers, so if you sign up just before the ceremony and cancel your membership immediately afterward, you won’t pay a cent.
How will the Oscars be different this year because of COVID-19?
The Academy made two big calls with regards to this year’s Oscars shortly after the pandemic began, the first being an unprecedented decision to grant eligibility to streaming movies that missed out on a theatrical release. More on that here.
Second was its announcement that the ceremony would be postponed from Feb. 27 to late April, which is quite late for an Academy Awards show. (They’re typically held in late February or early March in non-pandemic times.) The deadline for eligibility was also extended accordingly from Dec. 31 through Feb. 28.
In a different move toward “normal” (and a change of pace from February’s half-virtual, half-IRL Golden Globes) this year’s Oscars ceremony and its red-carpet lead-up will be held in-person, though attendees are limited to nominees, their guests, and presenters to keep everyone safe. That’s according to an email the show’s producers sent to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members in mid-March, as USA Today reported, which noted that Zoom speeches “will not be an option.”
Also returning to the Oscars: great gowns, beautiful gowns. “We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational,” the producers wrote, “which in actual words means formal [dress] is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not.” Translation: Don’t expect any “Jason Sudeikis in a tie-dye hoodie” moments to come out of the evening.
Who’s been nominated?
Click here to see the full list of nominees. Per Mashable entertainment reporter Proma Khosla, highlights “[include] awards-circuit darlings like The Trial of the Chicago 7, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Minari, another posthumous nomination for Chadwick Boseman, and a lot of love for the Borat sequel.”
See also: Not one but two women in the Best Director category (Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Chloe Zhao for Nomadland) — that’s an Academy first.
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Where can I watch the Best Picture nominees?
You’re in luck: They’re all available for streaming, purchase, and/or rental at the time of writing.
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The Father — Amazon Prime Video, AMC Theatres On Demand, Apple TV, DirecTV, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Verizon Fios, Vudu, and Xfinity Stream
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Judas and the Black Messiah — HBO Max
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Mank — Netflix
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Minari — Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, DirecTV, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube
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Nomadland — Hulu
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Promising Young Woman — Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, DirecTV, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube
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Sound of Metal — Amazon Prime Video
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The Trial of the Chicago 7 — Netflix
