The Oscars are really going out on a limb with this one, aren’t they? To woo audiences from a younger demographic and to shorten the ceremony’s running time, the Academy Of Motion Pictures, Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has taken a really radical step of doing away with the telecast of 4 awards in the technical categories. The categories include: Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Makeup & Hairstyling and Live-action Short film.
President John Bailey said that the Academy will separately air the acceptance speeches on Oscar.com, and get rid of the winners’ walk on stage for the above categories.
Can you imagine a film without the dreamy visuals of Emmanuel Lubezki? Or one of the most influential cuts made in Hollywood by Anne V Coates in Lawrence of Arabia? What would the audience make of Brad Pitt’s performance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, if it wasn’t for Greg Cannom’s spectacular makeup?
What better way to celebrate achievements in film than to not publicly honor the people’s who’s job it is to literally film things.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) February 12, 2019
Reposting, revised: I would not presume to suggest what categories should occur during commercials on Oscars night, but, please: Cinematography & Editing are at the very heart of our craft. They are not inherited from a theatrical or literary tradition: they are cinema itself.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) February 13, 2019
In the history of CINEMA, masterpieces have existed without sound, without color, without a story, without actors and without music. No one single film has ever existed without CINEMAtography and without editing.
— Alfonso Cuaron (@alfonsocuaron) February 12, 2019
I couldn’t agree more. If we are here to celebrate the craft and medium, its hard to imagine putting these categories down a tier from any others. https://t.co/poGUUeOsRl
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) February 12, 2019
The move has obviously been greeted with a lot of hostility and disappointment. A majority of the Oscar contenders have called this ‘demeaning’ to a technician’s work that enables a director to realise his/her film.
This edition of the Academy Awards has been riddled with difficult choices and bold declarations, where the esteemed body even momentarily considered introducing a category of Best Popular Film. After a strong social media backlash, the Academy changed its mind and decided to withdraw the proposal. With host Kevin Hart withdrawing from the ceremony under the most controversial circumstances, the Academy has failed to find someone to fill in the blank. And thus, it was announced that this would be the first time in over three decades where an Oscar evening would go without a host.
The Academy has been struggling with the dipping viewership with each passing year. It has been trying to contain its bloated run-time through a variety of methods. Last year’s ceremony saw host Jimmy Kimmel participate in a running gag about reminding the winners about their chance to win a Jet Ski, for the winner who delivered the shortest acceptance speech.
The technicians around the world already rue the thanklessness of their jobs to bring a film into fruition. With the actors, directors, producers and writers hogging most of the limelight around a film’s success, this move by the Academy is sure to further alienate a technician from recognition. Which is hardly fair.
After this unpopular move, it remains to be seen if Oscar purists even make the effort to watch the telecast. And if the shortened running-time does end up boosting the TV rating in any significant manner. The 2019 Oscars are surely going to be a litmus test for the Academy for how far it could veer from its age-old traditions. It will be interesting to find out what their lessons are, after all this goes to bed.
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