Oscar nominations announcement delayed further to January 23 due to LA wildfires

Film academy also extends nominations voting period for members through Friday; annual nominees luncheon cancelled

New York: The Oscar nominations are being pushed back almost a week from their original date amid the ongoing California wildfires.

Nominations will now be announced on January 23, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Monday.

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“We are all devastated by the impact of the fires and the profound losses experienced by so many in our community,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said in a joint statement. “The Academy has always been a unifying force within the film industry, and we are committed to standing together in the face of hardship.”

With fires still active in the Los Angeles area, the film academy also extended the nominations voting period for its members through Friday. Originally, nominations were to be announced that morning.

The organisation that puts on the Oscars has also decided to cancel its annual nominees luncheon, an untelevised event best known for the “class photos” it produces annually.

The Scientific and Technical Awards, previously set for February 18, will be rescheduled later. The 97th Oscars will still happen on March 2, at the Dolby Theatre, with a live television broadcast on ABC beginning at 7 pm ET and a live stream on Hulu.

Oscar nominations were postponed in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ceremony itself was also delayed, which had happened several times before: it was pushed back a week because of disastrous flooding in Los Angeles in 1938.

In 1968, it was delayed two days following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr And in 1981, it was put off for 24 hours after President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington DC.

The 1981 decision was made four hours before the broadcast was scheduled to begin.