Academy Makes Decision on 2021 Oscars Host

The 93rd Academy Awards will not have a single host, marking the third consecutive Oscars telecast without one, sources told Deadline on Monday. This decision comes a few days after Oscars producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher, and Steven Soderbergh issued a letter to all nominees that there will be no option to use Zoom to virtually attend the ceremony. It will be in stark contrast to the Golden Globes and comes as award show ratings have plummeted while viewers tire of seeing celebrities accept awards from home. This year’s ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, April 25, and will air live on ABC.

Sources told Deadline the Academy plans to attract “high profile presenters” to hand out the awards on a rotating basis. The Academy has not commented on the report. The 2019 ceremony was the first one since 1989 to be without a host, and it earned mostly decent reviews. The 2020 ceremony repeated the format, but it was the least-watched ceremony since Nielsen started tracking viewership records in 1974.

Last week, Deadline obtained a letter Soderbergh, Sher and Collins sent to the nominees. Unlike other awards shows, winners will not be allowed to deliver a speech from home using Zoom, so the Academy will accept the award on their behalf if they cannot make it. “We are going to great lengths to provide a safe and ENJOYABLE evening for all of you in person, as well as for all the millions of film fans around the world, and we feel the virtual thing will diminish those efforts,” the producers wrote.

The producers also asked nominees not to dress casually for the show, so do not expect any viral moments because an actor wore a hoodie. “We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which in actual words means formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not,” the producers wrote. They also announced the theme of “Stories Matter” to highlight the stories movies tell through everyone involved, not just the above-the-title talent.

The ceremony will take place at Los Angeles’ Union Station, which is big enough to have everyone socially distant. They also plan to have some elements at the Dolby Theatre. It is speculated that the theater will be used for Original Song nominee performances.

While the Academy has not made a statement on the host decision, the producers did confirm that Glenn Weiss will be back to direct. “Our plan is that this year’s Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show, and Glenn has embraced this approach and come up with ideas of his own on how to achieve this,” the producers said Friday. “We’re thrilled to have him as part of the brain trust.”