Oscars 2021: Small movies and potential firsts define a strange year as award shows limp to the finish

How unusual are this year's Academy Awards? Begin with the fact they mark the end of a 14-month awards calendar, celebrating a roster of movies that people watched (we think, but don't precisely know) on TV.

The grueling pandemic media environment that took hold not long after last year's Oscars has given way to an awards season punctuated by record-low ratings for events like the Emmys, Golden Globes and Grammys. After delaying the ceremony and expanding the eligibility window through February, the 93rd Academy Awards will press on with a mostly in-person ceremony, one where the logistics have an inordinately high degree of difficulty. If the awards season has felt like a marathon, the Oscars can't help but feel as if they're limping across the finish line. The movies themselves -- which include five of eight best-picture nominees that primarily played on streaming services -- speak to the times, and the pandemic year, in different ways. Small in scale, they're the opposite of the global blockbusters that (before coronavirus, anyway) have been Hollywood's life's blood.