Next year's British Academy Film Awards have been postponed by two months, organizers said Tuesday. The move follows a decision by Hollywood's film academy to shift the 2021 Oscars from February to April because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The British Academy said the awards will be held on April 11, rather than the previously announced Feb. 14. The academy has also changed eligibility rules so that films whose theatrical releases were curtailed or switched to online-only releases will be eligible for consideration.
Film committee chair Marc Samuelson said the new date would "give all films the best possible chance to be released and considered properly."
Movie theaters in Britain have been closed since March 20 as part of a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The date of the 2022 awards, known as BAFTAs, is being reviewed.
On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC Television Network announced that the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned because of the pandemic's effects on the movie industry. It's the fourth postponement in Oscars history.
The British awards are usual held a week or two before the Oscars and have become an important awards-season staging post.
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Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More