Academy Awards postponed for two months due to coronavirus pandemic

The Academy Awards, the most prestigious ceremony in the manic, self-regarding vortex of Hollywood, has been postponed by eight weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The movie industry's glitziest night was originally scheduled for 28 February, 2021.

But after American cinemas were shut down during the country's attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, which allocates the fabled Oscars, extended the time during which films can be considered for the prized baubles.

Features will have until 28 February, 2021 to be judged instead of 31 December, 2020. The presentation of the Academy Awards will take place on 25 April, 2021.

The Academy said on social media that nominations for the coveted statues would be announced on 15 March.

"Our hope, in extending the eligibility period and our Awards date, is to provide the flexibility filmmakers need to finish and release their films without being penalised for something beyond anyone's control," said Academy president David Rubin and Dawn Hudson, the chief executive in a joint statement on Monday.

New rules
The Academy relaxed its rules in April in order to allow movies that skip the big screen and appear on streaming platforms to contend for Oscars this year.

"For over a century, movies have played an important role in comforting, inspiring, and entertaining us during the darkest of times. They certainly have this year," said Rubin and Hudson's statement.

The Academy Awards have been postponed before. The first delay came after Los Angeles flooded in 1938. Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in 1968 prompted the ceremony to be reschuled so too the shooting of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Last year the South Korean black comedy Parasite become the first non English-language film to win best picture award.