By Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to postpone the Governors Awards, which bestow honorary Oscars, due to concerns over the omicron variant.
New plans will come at a later date, an academy spokesperson said Wednesday. The untelevised but always star-studded event was set to be held Jan. 15 in Los Angeles.
"Given the uncertainties around the variants, and the impact this could have on our community, we feel this is the best and safest decision for our honorees and guests," the statement said.
Elaine May, Samuel L. Jackson and Liv Ullmann were announced earlier this year as the event's honorees. Danny Glover was also selected as the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient. The evening event is often packed with A-listers and Oscar hopefuls.
The academy canceled last year's Governors Awards because of the pandemic and presented two humanitarian awards during the Oscar broadcast.
The Governors Awards isn't the only high-profile Hollywood event to change plans in recent days. The Palm Springs International Film Festival also decided to cancel its starry awards gala, which was supposed to take place on Jan. 6 and included honorees like Kristen Stewart, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More