Producers Detail Pandemic-Inspired Changes For This Year’s Oscars

It’s no secret that award shows have been forced to adapt to the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the 93rd Oscars coming up next weekend, producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh participated in a press conference on Saturday to discuss their plans to adapt this year’s show to this era of social distancing.

Unlike the Emmys and the Golden Globes, reported The Wrap, winners won’t be accepting their awards via Zoom from their living rooms. According to the producers, this year’s ceremony will “announce itself as being different” right from the get go.

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Nominees who are able to attend in person will do so; for those who can’t, “satellite hookups” will substitute for Zoom. By the end of the broadcast, the producers promised that viewers “will be talking about how they made this happen.”

According to Soderbergh, their intention for the show is to “get us out of this feeling that we’re trapped at home. We want to see something that does feel like a potential future.”

Soderbergh also teased, “Masks are going to play a very important role in the story of this evening. If that sounds cryptic, it’s supposed to be.”

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Soberbergh admitted he was hopeful that the atmosphere the producers have created will be conducive to having winners “tell a story.”

Added Soderbergh: “Emotion is up in your grill. It will be really intense.”

In addition to mounting an entertaining award show, the producers also feel that this year’s Academy Awards will have created a “template” for how other award shows can go forward, but conceded it’s been challenging.

“It’s like building a plane while it’s in the air,” Soderbergh explained.

“It opened up an opportunity to try some things that haven’t been tried before,” he added. “We want the show to have a voice.”

The Oscars take place on Sunday, April 25.

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