The Oscars ceremony, delayed until April 25 due to the coronavirus pandemic that has rocked the entire film industry, will be broadcast live from "multiple sites," including Hollywood, the Academy announced on Wednesday.
Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, which still places restrictions on the Los Angeles area, "the Academy is determined to present an Oscar ceremony like no other, while emphasizing the public health and safety of all the participants,” said a spokesperson for the Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences, which presents the prestigious golden statuettes.
"To create the live performance that our global audience wants to see while adapting to the constraints of the pandemic, the ceremony will be broadcast live from multiple venues, including the iconic Dolby Theater" which traditionally hosts the Oscars in the heart of Hollywood, according to the statement sent to AFP.
The Academy has not given more details at this stage on the ceremony or the distribution of sites for this 93rd edition, the culmination of a season of film awards upset by the health crisis, between closure of cinemas and postponement of many big productions.
This is not the first time that the Oscars ceremony has been held simultaneously in several locations. In the 1950s, the broadcast was from Los Angeles and New York.
This is the formula chosen this year by the organizers of the Golden Globes for the award ceremony, which will be held on February 28.
Even though the size of the audience drops a little more each year, with an all-time low of 23.6 million viewers last year in the United States, the Academy Awards have traditionally remained one of the most watched events in the country, preceded only by the American football championship Super Bowl.
This year, the show was entrusted to Steven Soderbergh, director of the visionary film "Contagion," by the Academy of Oscars, whose leaders believe that this pandemic is an opportunity "to innovate and reimagine" the ceremony.
