Oscars set key 2013 dates, setting up a longer-than-usual phase two
Prospective nominees, prepare to be on the circuit a while
The gang from "The Artist" at this year's Academy Awards
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The Academy has just announced via Twitter key dates in next year's Oscar season, and it looks like the next batch of Oscar nominees will be spending a little extra time on the circuit than normal.
The nominations announcement will happen on Tuesday, January 15, according to AMPAS. That immediately caught my eye. Given the usual order of things, you'd have expected the announcement to land on 1/22 or even 1/29 instead. The last four years the nominees have been unveiled on 1/24 (2012), 1/25 (2011), 2/2 (2010) and 1/22 (2009, an unusual Thursday announcement).
Why does this matter? Well, given that the Oscars will be held on February 24 of next year, a typical date, that makes for nearly six weeks of phase two action. Usually it's closer to five.
I don't know if there's some programming issue that kept the Academy away from the latter two weeks of January for their announcement, but I almost wonder if there's some testing going on here, inching things back into January even more, laying the foundation for bringing the ceremony itself closer to the start of the year, etc. But I'm just spit-balling.
Perhaps the Academy wants to provide more time for voters to see all the films? But really, given the great narrowing of contenders that occurs in a given film awards season, more time to see the films in phase two isn't really necessary. Once everything's been vetted for them, they pretty much see all the nominees. Or perhaps the Academy is responding to a lower number of ballots making it in on time. Again, just guessing.
Then again, maybe it's simply to set a wider window to increase exposure for the the ceremony and offer up a nice, healthy build-up to the show. I don't know. But Sundance press will be happy to hear that the announcement will drop two days before the fest, rather than somewhere in the middle, per usual.
The Oscars moved to late-February beginning with the 2003 season after being embedded in March with a lengthy phase one and two for years. They dipped back into March twice since then, for the 2005 and 2009 seasons (due to the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, respectively). That extended phase two by two weeks in each case, but this is extra time on the other side of that window, so, interesting.
In any case, mark your calendars. Nominees will be announced January 15, 2013 and the 85th annual Academy Awards will take place at the hopefully-re-named-by-then Theatre formerly known as the Kodak on Sunday, February 24, 2013.
For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.
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2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
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March 14, 2012 at 1:51PM EST Reply to CommentI think it's a good thing because Phase 2 can go by quickly and it's such a long wait for the nominations so getting them a little earlier will be nice. I think they should adjust the voting periods to start after New Years but with this change the date the ballots are mailed could be pushed further back into December which means less time for voters to see films for nominations, not wins. The nomination (to me at least) is the most important thing and really the prize.
Chris138 Yeah, I usually hold more anticipation for what will be nominated more so than what will end up winning, although I enjoy guessing the latter as well.
March 14, 2012 at 2:51PM ESTgregel
March 14, 2012 at 4:49PM EST Reply to CommentI would say all the journos who have to cover Sundance are very grateful its skipping the festival this year. One 6:30 AM wakeup we can now avoid in Park City.
John
March 14, 2012 at 5:35PM EST Reply to CommentI wonder what will do HFPA, SAG and Bafta. LMAO
Guy Lodge LMAO? You're easily amused. ;)
March 14, 2012 at 6:15PM ESTAndrej
March 14, 2012 at 5:37PM EST Reply to CommentCould this mean the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards might be held in december just to accomodate the Oscar nominations?
loyal_mehnert
March 14, 2012 at 7:03PM EST Reply to CommentGood news for December contenders.
eddie88
March 14, 2012 at 8:24PM EST Reply to CommentDidn't the 2010 Oscars occur in March because of the Vancouver Olympics?
Kristopher Tapley Indeed.
March 14, 2012 at 8:39PM ESTJLPatt
March 14, 2012 at 10:52PM EST Reply to CommentNow they just need to announce they're moving back to a five-film Best Picture slate. We're waiting...
The Pretentious Know It All Call me cynical, but I don't see them moving back to five in the year of "The Dark Knight Rises." They expanded the Best Picture roster to include more populist fair. I don't even think it's a stretch to say that the exclusion of "The Dark Knight" from the Best Picture list in 2008 and the outcry that resulted were main catalysts for making the change from five to ten. I guess the same can be said about "Wall-E" to a lesser extent (lesser extent in terms of how close it got, not qualitatively speaking). AMPAS has seemed rather desperate in the past few years to include some kind of populist slant, rather than embracing what they are and putting on a show for the people in the room that they're supposed to be honoring. They could conceivably go back to five. I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that within three to five years we'll see them revert. I don't see it happening in 2012, the year Christopher Nolan is in the hunt for his final installment in the Batman series. Just a hunch.
March 15, 2012 at 1:20PM ESTEveryone will hopefully notice that I'm not saying that "The Dark Knight" SHOULD have been nominated for Best Picture.
/3rt Pretentious: I would love for Nolan to be denied again a Best Director nod. The outcry when Inception missed director was so assuming and hilarious. Now if the Academy wanted to correct a mistake of the past -- they'd let only women vote on Best Actress.
March 16, 2012 at 12:20AM EST