Critics Choice Awards to take place on same day as BAFTA

Los Angeles, Jan 14 (IANS) The Critics Choice Association has announced that it will hold the 2022 Critics Choice Awards ceremony on March 13, the same day as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, reports ‘Variety’.

The final round of voting for this year’s Critics Choice Awards will take place on March 9-11. Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ and Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast’ dominated this year’s batch of nominees.

In late December, the Critics Choice Association announced it would delay its 2022 awards ceremony because of concerns over the surge in Covid-19 cases and the Omicron variant. The event was originally set to take place on January 9.

“Following the science and tracking the course of the Omicron variant, we believe that March 13 will be the right day to properly honour the finest achievements in film and television during the past year,” ‘Variety’ quoted the organisation’s CEO Joey Berlin as saying.

He added: “We could have proceeded with our original date with limited attendance or switched to a virtual awards show like we did last year, but we decided to wait until we could safely gather in person and truly celebrate with the creative community, industry leaders and our CCA members all together in one beautiful setting for all the world to see.”

The reason why the Critics Choice Awards are now set to take place on the same evening as the BAFTAs is because, reports ‘Variety’, they faced an onslaught of busy Sundays for television networks and the city of Los Angeles in looking for a date to reschedule.

Super Bowl LVI, the NBA All-Star Game and SAG Awards all take place on consecutive Sundays in February. Additionally, the Academy Awards is hosting its annual luncheon for nominees on March 7, while the Los Angeles marathon will take place in Century City on March 20.

–IANS

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