Industry’s Top Award Shows Go Virtual in 2022 Due to COVID Variants
By Movieguide® Staff
Despite two years of working with COVID rules and regulations, the entertainment industry continues to experience setbacks and complications.
As cases spike for virus variants like Omicron, the industry’s most-attended award shows face delays and even go virtual.
The Golden Globes, which in years past have kicked off the award seasons, announced that they would postpone the award show “after careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts.”
“Suddenly, 2022 is looking eerily similar to 2021,” The Times’s Nicole Sperling wrote in a recent article called “Quiet Awards Season Has Hollywood Uneasy.”
Sperling also notes that the industry’s top award shows provide much-needed advertisement for tentpole movies, which has become paramount for the box office over the past two years.
“It is also seeing the movie business’s best form of advertisement undercut in a year when films desperately need it,” Sperling added.
The Grammys are not the only show to take a hit in light of Omicron. The Critics’ Choice Awards and the AFI awards were both delayed.
For film festivals, most have turned to virtual events or cancellations.
“It’s a daily thing at this time,” Judi Barker, owner of Barker Hangar, an event space located in Santa Monica, said. “Nobody really knows where this is going.”
Sundance CEO Joana Vicente announced plans to hold the Sundance Film Festival virtually this year.
A portion of Vicente’s statement reads:
In two weeks, we will gather together online to celebrate independent storytelling and introduce you to remarkable artists and their work. The Festival will begin Thursday, January 20, 2022 as planned. Our eleven days of online programming will proceed, with screening schedule adjustments to account for an online-only schedule. Our seven satellite partners will host screenings for their local communities from January 28-30.
We believe in the transformative power of artists and their work. Today, as we navigate all that the pandemic throws at us we go back to what is certain: Gathering together – in whatever way we can – is profound. Community matters. We follow the artist. So, we look forward to sharing with you the extraordinary work that fuels our Festival, experiencing it together, and celebrating the artists who will change the culture.
While audience responses to award shows are often a mixed bag, with many seeing them as merely self-celebration by studios and actors, their connection to the box office is unmistakable.
“The movie business is this gigantic rock, and we’re close to seeing that rock crumble,” Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, told The New York Times.
“We’ve got holds all over the place,” NeueHouse Hollywood chief branding officer Jon Goss said. “Everybody’s going to be competing for space; we’re probably going to make sure that all the brands and clients we’ve worked with most regularly feel like they’ve got to push the button whenever they want to push the button, and we’ll be ready to do that.”
As the industry’s top award shows go virtual, it is crucial to note that what carried the 2021 box office were morally uplifting and family-friendly movies.
Movieguide® previously reported:
While some demographics are still worried about COVID-19 and its variants, the genuine deciding factor for audience interest was moral content or lack thereof.
Of the top twenty domestic box office performances (Box Office Mojo), only three had an R-rating, No. 14 HALLOWEEN KILLS, No. 18 THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, and No. 19 CANDYMAN.
Most of the top 20 contained movies that championed family, moral values, and shunned immoral content.
Movies like THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS (No. 20), ENCANTO (No. 15), A QUIET PLACE PART II (No. 8), and F9: THE FAST SAGA (No. 5) dominated the domestic box office in 2021.
Movieguide® notes that if studios and filmmakers want to return to box office normalcy, immorality doesn’t sell, especially today when people desire uplifting content amidst COVID.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
