The 2021 Critics’ Choice Awards have been moved to March 7, the Critics Choice Association and the CW network announced on Wednesday.
The move was made in response to the Oscars moving from Feb. 28 to April 25, and follows similar moves from the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA). The show will take place at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, and will be hosted by Taye Diggs for the third time.
Nominations will be announced on Jan. 18 for the television categories and Feb. 7 for the film categories.
With other awards shows expected to follow suit, the entire awards season is essentially shifting back two months in 2021 to give theaters more time to reopen and film studios more time to finish films that are in production.
As with the Oscars and the Spirit Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards have also changed their eligibility dates, accepting films that are released between Jan. 1, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021. Eligibility for television programs will still be restricted to shows that aired during calendar 2020.
The Critics’ Choice Awards were launched in 1995 by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, an organization of film and television critics. It later admitted internet critics, and in 2010 was renamed the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards to differentiate it from the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, which were launched in 2011 by an affiliated organization, the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. The two awards shows took place separately for five years but merged in 2016.
Beginning in 1999, the Critics’ Choice Awards were a reliable predictor of Oscar Best Picture winners for about 15 years, but the two organizations have agreed on the top winner only twice in the last six years.