Continuing the recent tradition of presenting its golden statuettes at the end of February, the motion picture academy announced Tuesday that the 84th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012.

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While there were rumors the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was looking into a January ceremony date, it appears it decided to stick to the last Sunday in February. One report said the NFL halted the Academy’s progress to upend the awards season, and increase relevance, by moving the Oscars up. (The Academy’s retiring executive director Bruce Davis said in the report: “There are only a limited number of Sundays in January and February … I think some people feel (the Oscars) has lost some of its energy, and we’re looking for energy.”)

With newly appointed executives at the Academy (set to take charge June 1), changes are inevitable. Moving the ceremony to January could have caused major headaches for AMPAS, which utilizes mail-in ballots. Along with voting, members of the academy would have had to rush to see all of the motion pictures eligible for contention — another factor that time can help.

Alas, the Academy has stuck with recent tradition and ABC will televise the 84th Annual Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 26th, 2011, Academy President Tom Sherak announced Tuesday. The red carpet show will stay in its newly expanded 90 minutes that will immediately precede the ceremony broadcast. He also announced key dates.

Key dates

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011: Official Screen Credits forms due

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011: Nominations ballots mailed

Friday, Jan. 13, 2012: Nominations polls close 5 p.m. PT

Tuesday, January 24, 2012: Nominations announced 5:30 a.m. PT, Samuel Goldwyn Theater

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012: Final ballots mailed

Monday, Feb. 6, 2012: Nominees Luncheon

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012: Scientific and Technical Awards presentation

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012: Final polls close 5 p.m. PT

Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012: 84th Academy Awards presentation

Previous Oscar Nights

A January ceremony would have been unprecedented for the Oscars. Over the past eight decades, more than half of the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held in March (45, to be exact). About a quarter of the ceremonies were held in April (23). Six ceremonies in the past decade have been held in February; five ceremonies in the first two decades were also held during the second month of the year. The 1st Academy Awards were held May 16, 1929. Three were held in November — the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Thus the academy sticks to its tradition and next year’s show will be one day earlier than this year’s ceremony. The red carpet will be rolled out on Feb. 26, 2012.

Toledo Free Press Star Lead Designer James A. Molnar blogs about all things Oscar at TheGoldKnight.com. His column will appear online and in print periodically.

Tags: Academy Awards, James Molnar, Oscars, The Gold Knight

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Film, The Gold Knight.
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