What will the Oscars race look like this year? There are two answers to that question.The first is that, after an awards season that took place almost entirely virtually — give or take a rendition of “Da Butt” — the industry is ready to fête and be fêted in person again. September’s Telluride Film Festival was an unofficial dry run. Everyone had to be vaxxed just to show up. Masks were mandatory inside theaters.
Much of the schmoozing took place at outdoor venues, while the indoor ones required a negative test in the last 48 hours. Consensus seems to be that the festival pulled it off, landing in that strange 2021 sweet spot: safe enough to not freak people out, relaxed enough to still feel vaguely normal. If you squinted, you could almost pretend it was 2019 all over again.
Source: Oscars Predictions: Best Picture, Best Director, and More