Pandemic-hit Oscars to be broadcast from 'multiple locations'

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - This year's Oscars will be broadcast live and "in-person" from multiple locations, the Academy said on Wednesday (Feb 10), as details of Hollywood's pandemic-delayed big night finally begin to take shape.

The Academy Awards in recent decades have taken place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, but with the United States' second largest city still under Covid-19 restrictions, the ceremony is "adapting to the requirements of the pandemic," said a spokesman.

"To create the in-person show our global audience wants to see... the ceremony will broadcast live from multiple locations, including the landmark Dolby Theatre," they said in a statement to AFP.

The 93rd Academy Awards will be "an Oscars like none other, while prioritising the public health and safety of all those who will participate," the spokesman added.

No further new details were offered on the ceremony, which caps Hollywood's lengthy award season.

It is not the first time the Oscars will take place at multiple locations. As far back as 1953 - the first time the ceremony was televised - proceedings were split between Los Angeles and New York.

This year, other award shows are already experimenting with multiple locations including this month's Golden Globes.

The Globes will see a "first-ever bicoastal telecast" in which Tina Fey hosts from New York's Rainbow Room and Amy Poehler from the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, organisers said.

Television's Emmys in September were broadcast from a near-empty Los Angeles theatre, with nominees and winners dialing in from their homes and socially distanced gatherings via video call.

With Covid-19 shuttering movie theatres and wreaking havoc on Hollywood's release calendar, the all-important Academy Awards have already been postponed by two months to April 25.

Because many studio blockbusters and indie arthouse movies have been forced to push back their release dates until theatres reopen, the cut-off date for Oscar-eligible films has also been extended by two months, to the end of February.

Contagion director Steven Soderbergh will produce this year's Oscars ceremony, which has been billed as "the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show" by Academy president David Rubin and chief executive officer Dawn Hudson.

"We're thrilled and terrified in equal measure," said Soderbergh in an earlier joint statement with co-producers Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher.