Coronavirus: Golden Globes make unprecedented rule changes, with Oscars expected to follow suit

The eligibility requirements have been altered by the pandemic and could ultimately constitute a big win for online distributors like Netflix

The Golden Globe Awards have made an unprecedented change to their eligibility rules in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Whereas previously films would need a proper theatrical release (or, in some instances, a pay-per-view digital release) in order to qualify for the awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced that films whose planned releases were cancelled due to the coronavirus are now exempt.

If producers and studios can prove that they intended to release a film theatrically between 15 March and 30 April, 2020, then a streaming or TV broadcast premiere will be enough for consideration, so long as other requirements are met.

In a statement, the HFPA said: “The HFPA will continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on motion picture and television distribution and exhibition and may extend these suspensions of the Golden Globe award rules and/or may make other temporary variations to those rules as it considers appropriate in the future.”

Many are also expecting the Academy Awards to follow suit, in what would be a landmark rule change for an awards body that has long rallied against the cinematic legitimacy of exclusively home-viewable movies.

While the biggest films, such as No Time to Die and Disney’s Mulan, have rescheduled their cinematic releases for later in the year, others have been (fully or partially) replacing their theatrical debuts with online ones.

You can read a list of all the film and TV projects affected by the pandemic here.