A letter sent this week by the organizers of the SAG Awards to film studios confirmed that the annual program will join the Oscars and the Golden Globes in reviewing their film eligibility guidelines this year as the coronavirus closes. has closed all theaters across the country.

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SAG's rules, to be finalized next month, will allow titles with a planned theatrical release to be eligible if they air first or air on VOD, according to the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Up News Info.

The other major guild awards are expected to follow suit in this unusual year, when films that generally must qualify for a theatrical release in Los Angeles, or in Los Angeles and New York, are unable to do so due to the closure. Most major studios have taken their summer and fall movies into fall and winter, and even through 2021, as the prognosis for reopening of multiplexes remains nebulous at best.

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The Up News Info has reached representatives of the PGA Awards, WGA Awards and DGA Awards to ask about their plans.

On April 28, both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar organizer and the organizers of the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, revealed changes in the film eligibility requirements for their ceremonies in honor of to the best movies of 2020.

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For the Oscars, the eligibility rules for movies that open on streaming and video-on-demand services were changed "temporarily" to allow them to qualify, even if they don't appear first with the standard seven-day theatrical qualification race, or the day and date. Films will still have to qualify as they are available on the Academy exclusive streaming site within 60 days of the launch of the streaming or VOD and must have been previously intended for a theatrical release.

The Academy also for the first time expanded the number of eligible theaters to include some outside of Los Angeles County and in other areas and multiple cities to make this much easier for dealers.

Changes to HFPA rules state that movies that had a good-faith theatrical release planned to begin in Los Angeles during the period of March 15 to the date that will be determined by HFPA when theaters in the Los Angeles area Angels have reopened, instead released first in a television format (eg, subscription broadcast service, subscription cable channel, television broadcast, etc.) and will continue to be eligible for the Golden Globe Film Awards " The group made similar concessions for entries in foreign languages.

The Oscars of 2021 are still scheduled for February 28. The Golden Globes haven't set a date for 2021, but if everything goes back to almost normal, it would probably be Sunday, January 10.

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The latest SAG Awards join the Oscars and the Golden Globes in the rule change in the middle of closing Up News Info - Up News Info