Steve Pond's Awards Beat: The Oscar Season's Planned Comeback Is Already in Danger Due to Omicron Surge

Steve Pond's Awards Beat: The Oscar Season's Planned Comeback Is Already in Danger Due to Omicron Surge No images? [Click here]( ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=347001;uid={EMAIL}5727996;click=template_awards_beat [Awards Beat with Steve Pond] December 24, 2021 [- - -] The Oscar Season’s Planned Comeback Is Already in Danger Due to Omicron Surge As the dominoes fall and one event after another is postponed, almost everybody except the Golden Globes could end up suffering [- - -] By Steve Pond [Masks at screening] Masked viewers at an awards screening of “The Hand of God” (Getty Images) The COVID-19 variant Omicron is on the verge of making a virtual mess of what was supposed to be a return to a vibrant, in-person awards season. And in a season designed to crown a lot of winners, it could turn almost everybody into losers – except, maybe, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, whose humiliation won’t be as public or as humiliating as it was supposed to be.   The variant hit with full force in a week when voters were preparing for holiday movie-watching, and a week when the Academy released a barrage of shortlists that created lots of interesting storylines for this awards season. But nobody’s paying attention to that, because this is what happened in the course of just three days: - The Palm Springs International Film Festival [canceled its annual awards gala](, which was set for Jan. 6 and would have brought Nicole Kidman, Lady Gaga, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart and the casts of “Belfast” and “King Richard,” among others, to an event that gives them visibility coming out of the holidays and into a heavy month of voting. - The American Film Institute [postponed its annual AFI luncheon](, which would have saluted the top 10 films and TV shows of the year on the day after the Palm Springs gala. - [BAFTA Los Angeles followed suit]( and delayed its annual tea party, which would have gathered contenders from all the top films at a collegial affair in Beverly Hills the day after AFI. - The Academy postponed its annual Governors Awards, the biggest event of phase-one campaigning, from Jan. 15 to an unspecified date. ID=167008;size=300x250;setID=284833;uid={EMAIL}5727996;click=template_awards_beat - The Critics Choice Association, after initially saying that it was going ahead with plans for its Jan. 9 show, bowed to the inevitable and [postponed its ceremony]( as well. So did the Cinema Eye Honors, which delayed its New York event celebrating - And the Sundance Film Festival stuck with its Jan. 20-30 dates but announced that it would limit capacity and prohibit eating in its theaters and event venues, and also require full vaccination plus booster shots for all attendees. As those dominoes all fell between Monday and Wednesday, they raised questions about in-person screenings, events and awards shows in February and beyond – and they brought to mind the drawn-out and bizarre awards season of early 2021, when only the Grammys seemed to make the necessary adjustments to hold a satisfying event. 2022 was supposed to be the year when in-person shows were possible and excitement might return to awards season, boosting ratings that in every case had hit record lows. But the pandemic seems to have other plans: Viewers haven’t been returning to theaters for worthy awards movies like “West Side Story” (or anything else except “Spider-Man: No Way Home”), and voting groups are now facing a choice between delaying their events until Omicron dies down (late January? Sometime in February?) or going back to the virtual formats that have led to disastrous ratings and bored viewers. The group that’s been hit the hardest by this might be the Critics Choice Association. The organization of more than 500 film and television journalists was hoping that this would be the year it could establish the Critics Choice Awards as a more credible alternative to the Golden Globes, which has been taken off the air while the Hollywood Foreign Press Association works to become more diverse and less ethically challenged. Read the rest of Steve’s column [here](. Read Steve Pond’s recent Awards Beat coverage [HERE](. [- - -] [Follow us on Facebook]( [Follow us on Twitter]( [Follow us on Instagram]( [Follow us on Linkedin]( TheWrap 2260 S. Centinela Ave. Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90064 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. If you are no longer interested you can [unsubscribe instantly](.