The Oscars Will Be Earlier Next Year, But the Season Will Be

The final awards season felt just like the longest, weirdest one ever — however the subsequent one will not be a lot better.

That’s one takeaway from the Film Independent Spirit Awards’ choice to not keep on with the same old date on the day earlier than the Oscars, which this yr would have been March 26. Instead, the present is transferring up three weeks to March 6.

Film Independent defined the transfer as a option to “shine an even brighter light” on indie movies within the days main as much as Oscar voting, but it surely’s additionally a manner of claiming that subsequent yr’s Oscars are simply too late within the yr — that they didn’t need to wait all the way in which to the top of March 2022, particularly for the reason that movies in competition will all have been launched by Dec. 31 of 2021.  

(Last yr, when the Oscars and the Spirit Awards had been each held in late April, the eligibility interval had been prolonged by two months, to the top of February.)

The difficult factor is that in 2021, when the Oscars had been so late, your entire calendar moved again to suit the Academy’s schedule: The first main awards present, the Golden Globes, didn’t happen till the top of February, which means that the Oscars’ transfer primarily shifted your entire calendar again for 2 months.

This yr, although, the Critics Choice Awards have staked out a Jan. 9 date, which in a traditional yr would have been when the Globes would happen. (The Globes, you might have heard, are on maintain whereas the Hollywood Foreign Press Association undertakes some reforms.)

So meaning the awards season will begin in earnest in early January (or late November, in the event you rely the Gotham Awards, which moved again to Nov. 29 from this yr’s Jan. 11 date). But it received’t finish till the final week of March. And if the previous season felt interminable, which it did, the upcoming one may not be a lot completely different.  

Here’s the maths: In 2021, there have been eight weeks between the Golden Globes and the Oscars; in 2022, there might be 11 weeks between the Critics Choice Awards and the Oscars.

In 2021, 15 weeks separated the Gothams and Oscars; in 2022, it would stretch to 17 weeks.

Given that, you may’t blame the Spirit Awards for not eager to take their normal day-before-the-Oscars slot. And the transfer received’t damage their means to attract a crowd to their ceremony, which for a change will happen within the night fairly than the afternoon. Not coincidentally, March 6 occurs to be the day earlier than the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which implies that expertise might be on the town — and for indie filmmakers who aren’t within the working for Oscars, the Spirit Awards is the most important recreation on the town and warrants a visit to L.A. at any time when it occurs.

Other reveals, in the meantime, have adjusted to a point to the prolonged Oscar schedule: The Directors Guild Awards, as an example, will happen on March 12 of subsequent yr, and the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) on March 13.

In different phrases, in the event you appreciated the elongated awards season final yr, congratulations: You’re getting one other one this yr. And in the event you didn’t prefer it, sorry about that.