Emmy-winning director and Oscar telecast veteran Glenn Weiss was tabbed Friday as the director of the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held in a split format at Los Angeles Union Station and the Dolby Theatre, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday.
It will be Weiss’ sixth time directing the Oscar telecast. He has collected a pair of Emmy Awards for his past work on the Oscars. He has also directed 19 Tony Awards shows, earning another three Emmys.
“Our plan is that this year’s Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show, and Glenn has embraced this approach and come up with ideas of his own on how to achieve this,” according to a statement from ceremony producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh.
The 93rd Oscars will be held April 25. The Academy has confirmed that the show will be based at both Union Station and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, but it has not publicly released any specific plans for the telecast.
But in a letter to nominees obtained by various trade publications this week, the show’s producers said the event will not be a virtual affair with nominees and winners appearing via webcast or Zoom. In fact, the producers stressed that “there will not be an option to Zoom in for the show.”
“Regarding the practical aspects of the show, our plan is to stage an intimate, in-person event at Union Station in Los Angeles, with additional show elements live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood,” according to the letter. “Of course, your first thought is CAN THAT BE DONE SAFELY? The answer is YES, IT CAN. We are treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability. There will be specific instructions for those of you traveling in from outside of Los Angeles, and other instructions for those of you who are already based in Los Angeles.”
The letter also warned nominees against going casual for the typically fashion-forward event.
“We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which is actual words means formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not.”