On Sunday (April 25), the Academy Awards held a live, in-person ceremony amid the ongoing pandemic. Notably, many of the attendees were not wearing masks at the indoor awards show. Ahead of the broadcast, the Academy broke down how they were able to safely pull off the maskless ceremony.
During ABC's Oscars: Into the Spotlight special, Dr. Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said the "number of experts who collaborated to ensure everyone's safety" at the 93rd Oscars is fittingly "bigger than the cast of most blockbuster movies." Dr. Rimoin highlighted the numerous safety protocols used to prepare for the awards show, including "wearing masks, social distancing and continually testing right up until showtime."
David Rubin, the president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, discussed the safety procedures, as well. He said the Academy's "primary goal" was to "assure that there will be an event that will honor these amazing filmmakers for their extraordinary work this year and to do it safely and hopefully to lead the way toward a light at the end of the tunnel where we'll be able to join our friends and our families and our coworkers at parties and dinners and ideally in movie theaters, where they can see these films as they were intended to be seen.
The producers of this year's Oscars collaborated with "top epidemiologists" to safely carry out a live show. "They've orchestrated an environment that is 100 percent safe for these nominees and their guests," he added. "And we look forward to the rest of the world participating in these kinds of events," Rubin said.
During the live broadcast, those in attendance—likely the nominees—will be able to appear maskless when they are visible on camera. When the camera is not rolling, however, they will have to put their masks back on. The audience capacity is also capped at 170 people at any given time. Based on which award is being presented, those in attendance will be cycled in and out of the on-camera audience.
Attendees also had to undergo COVID-19 testing ahead of the ceremony. According to the Times, the show also has "specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability."
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