Notes On The Season: Johnny Depp, Camila Cabello Ignite Academy’s Twitter Fan Favorite Race; AMPAS Nixes Ticket Lottery; Ann-Margret Oscar Rewind

deadline.com:

A column chronicling events and conversations on the awards circuit.This week Oscar’s quest to be cool with fanboys & girls continues with the introduction of a “fan favorite” twitter initiative for Best Picture, plus bad news for Oscar voters who want to be at the Dolby.

There’s also big news for the Critics Choice Awards heading to London, and  I have a retro look at Ann-Margret at the Oscars including a famous pre-La La Land envelope scandal involving her 1963 film Bye Bye Birdie..OSCAR NOT HOLDING LOTTERY FOR MEMBERS DUE TO COVIDLimitations on attendance for the 94th Annual Academy Awards where only 2500 of the Dolby Theatre’s 3300 seats will be used in order to make it more Covid friendly means for the second year in a row there will be no traditional lottery held in which the 10,000+ members can vie to buy seats to see the show in person.

With just announced mask, vax, and testing requirements in the mix, something had to give on the theatre capacity numbers as well in order to maintain some semblance of social distancing even as the worst of the pandemic seems to be in the rear view mirror, for the moment at least.

The Academy sent the bad news to the membership earlier today: “We’re sorry to announce that we will not be able to conduct our annual member ticket lottery for the Oscars this year.