The 27th Critics Choice Awards, set to take place on Jan. 9 but then postponed due to the COVID surge, has been rescheduled for March 13 — the same day that the BAFTA Awards are scheduled to take place in London, which will force some talent to pick between one or the other. (Full disclosure: The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg is a member of the organizations behind both events, the Critics Choice Association and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.)
Joey Berlin, CCA president, tells THR that there was “literally no other choice” given the calendar. “We have to deliver a three-hour show to The CW on a Sunday,” he explained. Live events in Los Angeles are not expected to resume prior to the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, which takes that Sunday off the calendar. Then TBS, which will be simulcasting the Critics Choice Awards this year with The CW, has unbreakable commitments on Feb. 20 (the NBA All-Star Game) and Feb. 27 (SAG Awards). The Fairmont Century Plaza hotel is a major partner of CCA, which will now hold all of its events there, and the hotel is booked on March 6 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in order to set up for its Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which will take place there the next day. March 20 is the date of the Los Angeles Marathon. And the 94th Oscars will take place on March 27. “Our choice is to do a show on March 13 or not do a show,” Berlin insists.
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Berlin, who recently criticized the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for scheduling its 79th Golden Globe Awards on the same date on which the Critics Choice Awards were originally set to take place this year, tells THR he reached out to the leadership of BAFTA to explain his predicament and emphasize that his decision is not intended as an aggressive move. “They were really gracious,” he says. “I put out there that we’ll host the BAFTA nominees who are in L.A. at the Fairmont for breakfast, and they can be live via satellite” when the BAFTA Awards occurs eight hours before the Critics Choice Awards.
Meanwhile, BAFTA tells THR, “We are aware of the date change for the Critics Choice Awards and understand the unprecedented circumstances that have led to their decision this year. There are no changes to our current plans for an in-person event for the EE British Academy Film Awards on 13 March and we look forward to welcoming everyone to London’s Royal Albert Hall for a safe and memorable event. There are no current plans for any satellite link up.”
All of these dates and plans are, of course, dependent on how things progress with COVID. If we have learned anything over the two years of the pandemic, it is that another reshuffling may yet occur.
The Critics Choice Awards, which honors the best in film and television, will be co-hosted by Taye Diggs and Nicole Byer. The nomination leaders in the film categories are Belfast and West Side Story, while Succession leads in the TV categories.
