It is with a sad heart that we’ve taken the tough decision to delay the Midlands Movies Awards in 2021 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Back in March 13th of this year, we were fortunate enough to run our awards event in Leicester just days before a national lockdown, which for many was the last night out at a large event this year.

Therefore, in these uncertain times we have had to make a difficult choice about which direction the next event takes and require some time to consider all the options.

Around this time, we usually begin our crowd-funding preparations ready for an October launch before opening the Awards to submissions in November. We are choosing to push this back until further in the new year.

However, despite the delays I hope filmmakers can rejoice in the fact that we are committing to the Midlands Movies Awards running in some form in 2021.

A decision will be taken as early as possible next year to decide what kind of format these will be – but our hope is that a delay will mean that events with larger numbers are able to take place again.

The Midlands Movies Awards annual show usually follows the Oscars in February and have been run for four increasing successful years. From feedback we have received from filmmakers and film fans alike, there appears to be a great interest in running the awards whatever happens.

And we want to make sure that the Midlands Movies Awards delivers the prestigious ceremony and live excitement that people have come to expect.

With all that in mind, we ask people to keep checking our site and social media feeds for updates and hope to announce the plans next year.

I believe that the best way to achieve this in 2021 is to delay the show so we can create an event that will remind us how important local filmmaking has been in getting us through these difficult times.