YANGON-Myanmar Motion Picture Organization announced to delay the Academy Awards due to the Coronavirus outbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared a global health emergency.

The ceremony was planned to be held at the People’s Square in Yangon on March 29th.

The Organization said that they will again announce the date of the ceremony but only after the Thingyan Water Festival.

“We had planned to hold the Academy Awards grandly because it was timed to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of Myanmar Motion Picture Organization. However, the Coronavirus already spread across about 70 countries. The WHO recently declared a global health emergency state. All the people from the Movie industry had to attend the event. It would be a mass gathering ceremony because all media, special guests and movie lovers would attend the event. So, we suspended the ceremony. In general, it was planned to hold only after the Thingyan. We are going to announce the holding of the date,” said Nyi Nyi Tun Lwin, Chairman of Myanmar Motion Picture Organization.

The Ministry of Health declared the coronavirus an “epidemic or notifiable disease” under the Prevention and Control of Communicable Disease Law.

Worldwide, the death toll from COVID-19 has reached over 3,000, most of them in China, and the number of cases has passed over 90,000, spread across over 70 countries.

The presentation ceremony will be held with the aim of portraying the significance that Myanmar motion picture achieved, along with efforts to gain independence, to honour artists and technicians who were diligent in successive eras of the film industry and to bring about the development of the future film industry through the unity of the film community, including the old and new generations, and to pay back the gratitude owed by the film community to the people who supported the film industry for 100 years.