Masks in leading role for downsized Oscars

A ‘teeny-tiny’ red carpet, no invitations for Hollywood’s most powerful moguls, and a ‘central’ role for masks — next weekend’s in-person Oscars are taking no risks.

The 93rd Academy Awards will mark the first time Tinseltown’s finest have assembled in more than a year.

A “teeny-tiny” red carpet, no invitations for Hollywood’s most powerful moguls, and a “central” role for masks — next weekend’s in-person Oscars are taking no risks when it comes to COVID-19, but the event still would have been “impossible” to hold just weeks earlier, producers say.

The 93rd Academy Awards will mark the first time Tinseltown’s finest have assembled in more than a year, for the three-hour show that co-producer Steven Soderbergh says is “not going to be like anything that’s been done before”.

The delayed April 25 ceremony takes place barely a week after California opened vaccinations to all over-16s, with infection rates plummeting after a massive winter surge ripped through the state. Movie theatres are even reopening.

Many details are still under wraps, but the unusual nature of a pandemic-era Oscars “certainly opened up an opportunity to try some things that haven’t been tried before”, co-producer Soderbergh said.

Asked by AFP about the impact of the show’s two-month postponement, Soderbergh said: “It would have been impossible for us to do what we’re gonna do … I don’t know how we would have done it.

“This is the working definition of trying to build an airplane while it’s in the air,” the director told a virtual press conference, adding that his experience of making films during the pandemic — and his 2011 thriller Contagion — proved invaluable.

The ceremony will take place amid the “physical grandeur” of Los Angeles’ cavernous Union Station, with nominees mingling outdoors and then rotated in and out of the venue during the show.

The traditional red carpet will be dramatically downsized, and the guest list will be so limited that even powerful Disney boss Bob Iger “won’t be there”, Soderbergh said.

“Masks are going to play a very important role in the story of this evening,” he said. “If that’s cryptic, it’s meant to be … but that topic is very central to the narrative.”