Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh have been selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to produce the 93rd Oscars. The event is scheduled for Sunday April 25, 2021.
All three are new to the presented task of producing the biggest night in Hollywood, though Soderbergh and Sher have accumulated some Oscar wins and nominations in past years. In 2001, Soderbergh won best director for ‘Traffic’ alongside his other nomination in the same category that year for ‘Erin Brockovich’.
Sher has been in the best picture race twice at the Oscars for her produced films ‘Django Unchained’ and ‘Erin Brockovich’. She is credited with producing other titles such as ‘Contagion’ and ‘Out of Sight’. Her last Hollywood nomination was at the 2020 Emmy awards with FX’s ‘Mrs. America’, where the Cate Blanchett-led series was up for Best Limited Series.
Collins on the other hand, is a major figure in live award shows’ production. He works behind-the-scenes for big ticket events such as BET Awards, Soul Train Awards, UNCF An Evening of Stars and the Grammy Awards (2019). Aside the Oscars, Collins is attached to executive produce the 2021 Grammy awards as well as the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
“The upcoming Oscars is the perfect occasion for innovation and for re-envisioning the possibilities for the awards show,” said Academy president David Rubin and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson in a joint statement. “This is a dream team who will respond directly to these times. The Academy is excited to work with them to deliver an event that reflects the worldwide love of movies and how they connect us and entertain us when we need them the most.”
“We’re thrilled and terrified in equal measure,” Collins, Sher and Soderbergh said in a statement. “Because of the extraordinary situation we’re all in, there’s an opportunity to focus on the movies and the people who make them in a new way, and we hope to create a show that really feels like the movies we all love.”
It’s uncertain the format the Academy will be going for with the 2021 Oscars, either live or virtual. Most shows that took place this year amidst the pandemic did so with both live and virtual audience, as a means of curbing the COVID-19 situation.
The Emmy Awards hosted by Jimmy Kimmel was presented with some in-person audience while most nominees participated via zoom from their homes.
For two years in a row now, the Oscars has aired without a host (a formula, which has attracted mixed reviews from critics and viewers). The Academy is yet to confirm whether or not it will stick to the host-less adaptation next year or go back to its previous format of having a host on board.
