Oscar Nominations Pushed 2 Days Due to Historic L.A. Fires
The devastating fires raging across Los Angeles have caught the world’s attention with their ferocity and unpredictability.
The toll of the damage will take months to assess, but even last night, fresh fires were breaking out; the latest, named the Sunset Fire, broke out in Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills at around 5:30 p.m. The fires have already hit the Palisades, Altadena, the San Fernando Valley, and Malibu. The Sunset Fires now raging in Runyon Canon in the Hollywood Hills are close to iconic locations, such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Hollywood Boulevard, which puts it near everything from the TCL Chinese Theater to the Magic Castile and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Sunset Fire is also close to the Hollywood Bowl, one of the city’s most enduring landmarks.
While city officials and firefighters race to try to control the spread of the fires, small measures are being taken further afield that impact the city’s marquee business—Hollywood itself. The deadline for the Oscar nomination has been extended two days, to January 19, due to the fires. The nearly 10,000 Academy members voting window opened on January 8 and was originally set to close on January 12. That voting deadline has been pushed to January 14, with the nominations to follow five days later. The ceremony is set to take place on March 2, with Conan O’Brien hosting.
The Academy’s CEO, Bill Kramer, sent an email to members on Wednesday afternoon outlining the date changes: “We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California,” the email read, in part. “So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you.”
The voting extension follows premiers and events that have been postponed or canceled. Those include the planned Tuesday premieres for AmazonMGM’s Unstoppable and Universal’s Wolf Man, while Paramount canceled their Better Man premiere and Max canceled their The Pitt premiere for Wednesday.
More cancellations and postponements have come, including the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards ceremony, which has been moved from January 12 to the 26th.
Featured image: NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 25: Overview of Oscar statues on display at “Meet the Oscars” at the Time Warner Center on February 25, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
