The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will not require Oscar ceremony attendees to be vaccinated, Deadline has confirmed with a source close to the situation. Attendees will only need to show a recent negative Covid test. The Academy has not responded to Deadline’s requests for comment.
The move marks a break from requirements at other big, televised events such as this weekend’s Super Bowl, Lakers and Kings Games at Crypto.com Arena and the like.
The Los Angeles County Health Department has mandated attendees at such indoor & outdoor “mega-events” (defined by an audience of over 500 indoors and over 5,000 outdoors) be either vaccinated or present and negative test result. Most venues and events have offered both options.
An even bigger question for the event, however, may be the issue of masks. They are definitely required indoors at mega-events by the county, and the proposition of as sea of masked faces at the Oscars is less than the glitzy ideal the event has come to embody.
According to the source, discussions are still ongoing about masks and crowd size. There may be some wiggle room if the Academy decides to whittle the event’s guest list below 500 attendees.