The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to extend the voting period for Oscar nominees by two days and postpone a number of events due to large-scale wildfires that engulfed the Los Angeles suburbs. About this informs The Independent.
“The 30th annual Critics Choice Awards has been postponed from January 12 to January 26 due to the devastating wildfires raging in Southern California”, says the statement of the film academy.
Voting for this year’s nominees, which started on January 8, was supposed to end on January 12. However, due to the fire, the deadline was extended to January 14, and the announcement of nominees, scheduled for January 17, was postponed to January 19.
The forest fire in the Pacific Palisades area became one of the largest in the history of Los Angeles. A letter sent to Academy members by CEO Bill Kramer expressed condolences to all those affected by the disaster. The fires forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 people, 30,000 of them in Pacific Palisades. The fire destroyed houses, including the homes of celebrities such as Diane Warren, Anna Feris and Adam Brody with his wife Leighton Meester.
Several events were postponed or canceled due to the emergency situation. The international screening of the shortlisted films, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed until the end of the week. The premieres of the films “The Expendables” (Amazon MGM Studios) and “The Wolf Man” (Universal Studios) were also canceled. The nominations for the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards did not take place live, the names of the nominees were announced through a press release.
A number of other events, including the AFI Awards Luncheon scheduled for January 10, the BAFTA Tea Party on January 11 and the Critics’ Choice Awards on January 12, have also been postponed indefinitely.
