British films may struggle to receive future Oscar nominations because of plans to move the awards ceremony forward by two weeks, it has been claimed.
Cinema experts warned that a rearranged awards season timetable, set to be introduced in 2020, could impact the chances of best picture contenders created in the UK.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the Oscars will take place on February 9 in two years time. That will be two weeks earlier in the year than the 2019 ceremony at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre in 2019. British film distributors and critics said the date shift will cause a “crush” of films being released within the awards corridor over Christmas, which will make it harder to stake claims for honours.
Film critic Anna Smith, president of The Critics’ Circle, said: “The Oscar date shift will have huge repercussions across the industry — the structure of awards season is finely-tuned and every department is going to be affected. With a shorter time frame to cram in all the awards contenders, and the issue of the Christmas holidays in the middle, independent films and non-American titles seem particularly likely to be affected, so UK titles — especially those without huge marketing budgets — would be right to be worried. Cinemas only have so many screens, and smaller titles can struggle when up against heavily-promoted Hollywood fare.”
Past British Oscar success stories include Danny Boyle’s 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire and Hugh Hudson’s 1981 cult classic Chariots of Fire, which both picked up the best picture statuette.
Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA), said he feared the altered scheduled could make it harder for cinemagoers to watch the best British films of the year. “The industry will find a way to adapt, but the worst case is that we see lots of nominated titles opening at the cinema on the same date.
“And cinema goers only have so many hours of leisure time available in a week. It could end up in a crush.”
