The only three times the Oscars were postponed
The first Academy Awards ceremony took place in 1929, and almost 100 years later, it remains one of cinema’s most exciting events of the year. Designed to honour the greatest achievements the film world has to offer, the Oscars has seen thousands of cast and crew members take home golden statuettes throughout the decades.
There have been many scandals and controversies over the years, with the Academy Awards often acting as an important reflection of socio-political events. For example, in 1973, Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Little Feather to collect his Oscar in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans. Elsewhere, a viral hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, demanded greater representation and diversity among nominees, highlighting the Academy’s long history of holding racial biases.
On-stage slaps, streakers and awkward speeches will go down in Oscar history, and it seems as though nothing can stop the Academy Awards from going ahead. However, there have been three instances where the ceremony has been postponed to a later date, with two occasions related to political acts of violence. After the Oscars were postponed for a week in 1938 due to intense floods, the Academy was forced to delay the ceremony a second time in 1968.
Just a few days before the 40th Academy Awards, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr was fatally shot. His assassination came as a great shock to many, who mourned the loss of a man who dedicated himself to fighting racial injustice. His funeral was set to take place the day after the ceremony, and several nominees, such as Sidney Poiter, were going to be in attendance. To allow these actors to travel to the funeral, the Academy rescheduled the ceremony for two days later.
The next postponement came when Ronald Reagan, who was president at the time, was shot by John Hinckley Jr in 1981. The assassination attempt was carried out by Hinckley, who had erotomania, in an effort to impress actor Jodie Foster. He was inspired by Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, starring Foster, in which Robert De Niro’s character attempts to kill a senator.
After shooting Reagan, who was set to appear in the ceremony’s opening sequence, the Academy decided to postpone the night until it was confirmed that he was in a stable condition. Subsequently, the Oscars went ahead the next day.
In 2003, the Oscars were almost cancelled after the United States declared war on Iraq, but it was decided that the ceremony would still go ahead. The night saw Michael Moore win ‘Best Documentary’ for Bowling for Columbine, which led him to condemn America’s invasion of Iraq, a move that was somehow received negatively by many crowd members. Although the Oscars continued on, it was decided that there would be no red carpet event beforehand.
