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Awards campaigns, which have evolved intomultimillion-dollar charm offenses, would happen only virtually, or not at all.
Oh, and the Oscars would be taking place not on their usual February date, but in April.
Now that the 2021 Oscars are in the books, its time to take stock.
How did all this massive upheaval affect the ceremony itself?
Small films got their moment in the sun.
With the exception ofTenet, there were no traditional blockbusters in the awards race this year.
The uneasy truce between Netflix and the Academy continues.
But predictions that 2021 would be the year the streaming service dominated the Oscars didnt quite come to pass.
Netflix received two Best Picture nominations, the same as last year.
Ultimately, Netflix ended the night with more Oscars than any other studio.
The concept of an Oscar movie opened up but only slightly.
Husavik got an Original Song nomination.Emmas craft noms carried the standard forpre-pandemic cinema.
The Visual Effects category was filled out by enjoyably random titles like the talking-animal filmThe One and Only Ivan.
Campaign narratives took a backseat.
In both lead-acting races, the pundits were wrong.
A year with no villains.
(When people are trying to makeNomadlandthe bad guy, you know something has changed.)
If people dont know who theyre rooting for, how can they possibly decide who to root against?
Oscarwise, streaming and VOD are no competition for the big screen.
Without them, the Oscars might as well be the Gothams.
