"Academy Award Winner" by Dave_B_ is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The 93rd edition of the Academy Awards will take place Sunday, April 25, 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced recently. The ABC Television Network will carry the presentations live. The Oscar ceremonies were postponed from Feb. 28, 2021, the originally-scheduled date, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to this delay, the dates also have shifted for the Academy Awards eligibility period, submission deadlines and other related awards season events. The eligibility period for Academy Awards consideration was extended beyond the standard Dec. 31 deadline. A feature film must now have a qualifying release date between January 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021.
The new submission deadline for specialty categories (Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, International Feature Film, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film) is Dec. 1, 2020. The submission deadline for general entry categories, including Best Picture, Original Score and Original Song, is now Jan. 15, 2021.
That has also altered the betting lines on the Academy Awards categories. Yes, you can wager on the outcome of the Oscar presentations. MyBookie is just one of the many online sports betting sites that currently offer odds on the Oscar winners, even though the Oscar nominations won’t be announced until March 15, 2021.
Let’s look at how some of the key races are shaping up, based on the odds on offer at MyBookie.
Best Picture
Interestingly, Tenet is currently the +800 favorite. That’s even though leading industry insider Variety doesn’t project Tenet to earn a Best Picture nomination in its early Oscar predictions. The Christopher Nolan-directed film stars John David Washington as a secret agent working to prevent the start of World War III.
Dune and Mank are both given +900 odds, followed by three films with a betting line of +1000 – Nightmare Alley, The French Dispatch and The Midnight Sky.
Best Director
Mank’s David Fincher is already the -200 odds-on favorite to walk off with this award. Fincher based the film on a script written by his late father Jack, who died in 2003. Mank is a biographical drama about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his battles with director Orson Welles over screenplay credit for the legendary 1941 film Citizen Kane.
Two-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg is at +150 for West Side Story. Sofia Coppola (On the Rocks) and Ridley Scott (The Last Duel) are at +700. Aaron Sorkin could offer good value at +900 for The Trial Of The Chicago 7.
Best Actor
Some familiar faces top this category, led by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks at +500 for his role in News Of The World. Right behind him at +800 are two other previous winners in this category in Eddie Redmayne (The Trial of the Chicago 7) and Gary Oldman (Mank).
Will there be a groundswell of support for the late Chadwick Boseman at +1400 for his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom?
Best Actress
Viola Davis starred opposite Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and is the betting favorite in this category at +500.
A couple of past nominees who’ve never gotten the nod are right behind Davis in the odds. Amy Adams (Hillbilly Elegy) is the second betting choice at +700. She was also nominated in 2013 for American Hustle. Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy), whose seven Best Actress Oscar nominations without a win are already a record, is at +800.
Close is joined at +800 by three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep (The Prom).
"81st Academy Awards Ceremony" by BDS2006 (talk) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Will There Be A Host?
The past two Oscars have been held without a host. The first time it was done was in 2019 when Kevin Hart pulled out of the job at the last minute after a series of his old homophobic tweets resurfaced.
That formula worked so well, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science opted to go sans host again in 2020.
No wonder then that no official host is the favorite in this prop wager at odds of -200.
If you’re of the opinion that the Oscars are ready to go back to having a host fill that role, the oddsmakers think it will be a woman. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph are the +700 co-favorites, with Amy Poehler right behind them at +900 and Tina Fey at +1200.
Chris Rock and Jimmy Kimmel are the chalk among male candidates. Each is also given odds of +1200.