This year’s awards season has been kind of terrible. There’s not one movie where I’m like “I’ll die if it doesn’t win all the Oscars,” which is how I felt about Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave. While there has been some excitement, and I don’t think every race is locked in, overall the actual awards shows have been ghastly. The Globes were tedious and unfunny. The SAGs were terrible. The Critics Choice show was complete trash. And the Oscars will likely be an utter trainwreck. For months now, it’s like no idea is too stupid for Oscar producers to be like “hey let’s try that!” They weren’t going to allow every Best Song nominee to perform, and then they backed down and now every nominee will perform their song… but only for 90 seconds each. And here’s the latest: the Oscars won’t even show four biggish categories live. They’ll hand out the awards during the commercial breaks:
In a break with tradition, the Academy Awards in four categories will be presented during commercial breaks when the 91st Oscars are broadcast by ABC on Feb. 24. The affected categories are cinematography, film editing, live-action short and makeup and hairstyling.
While the Academy’s board of governors approved a plan in August to present some of the 24 awards categories during breaks in order to reduce the show’s running time to three hours, it had not been known which categories would be presented under the new format, which attracted criticism complaining that it would mean a downgrade for some categories.
In an email to the group’s membership on Monday, Academy president John Bailey laid out the plan for this year’s show. He emphasized that the Academy is “still honoring the achievements of all 24 awards on the Oscars.” In the case of the four categories that will be announced during commercial breaks, the winners’ speeches will air later in the broadcast, he said.
Additionally, Bailey explained, “with the help of our partners at ABC, we also will stream these four award presentations online for our global fans to enjoy, live, along with our audience. Fans will be able to watch on Oscar.com and on the Academy’s social channels. The live stream is a first for our show, and will help further awareness and promotion of these award categories.”
Bailey, who in addition to being president sits on the board of governors as a representative of the cinematographers branch, said the executive committees of six of the Academy’s 17 branches volunteered to have their respective awards presented under the new system, and that the Academy selected four of them. In future years, he said, four to six different categories may be selected on a rotating basis, in collaboration with the show producers. The four categories that are getting the abbreviated treatment this year will be guaranteed a regular spot on the 2020 broadcast.
There are industry people protesting this as we speak, even some of the nominees. Oscar purists are yelling about how too much is changing and of course the winners of these categories deserve their moments too. Which I completely understand, although let me contrarian for a moment. If the Oscars are “trying” to move with the times and create a product which isn’t so f–king long, then f–k it, let’s try this and see how it works. I honor the winners of Best Makeup and Best Cinematography too, and I applaud their good work. But I also don’t really need to hear their winner’s speeches, you know? Honestly, the Oscars could totally be streamlined into a really great two-hour show with all of the Best Song nominees being given time to perform their songs in total AND there would still be time to pass out the 12 biggest awards. Maybe just create a Schmoscars event where the “lesser” Oscars are given out. Or just do it at the Scientific Oscars, which are already a thing (a thing that isn’t televised). If you’re going to create a hierarchy of which Oscar categories are important enough to go live on air, then just go all in and really do it and create that perfect two-hour show.
All that being said, let’s be real: Oscar producers are going to sideline certain categories so they have more time for endless montages and random, stupid patter and “bits” which suck up too much time. If anything, I believe all of the chaos and disorganization will mean that this year’s Oscars telecast will be even longer than last year’s.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Think it’s a really good idea to shorten it to the big 12 nominees & give the lesser talked ones their own evening. The fashion & the main awards are what the majority of people tune in for anyway.
I’m moving my comment up here.
Personally I consider cinematography and film editing to be two essential elements that can make or break a movie and have a profound effect on the whole. I mean, cinematography???!!! What are movies but moving pictures? And film editing? What are movies but how those pictures are sequenced?? I find the choice of those two to be horrible decisions. Horrible.
For people who do TV shows and movies for a living these guys are really bad at organising a TV show.
This all seems so chaotic and disorganized.
The Oscars are in 12 DAYS! How are they throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks NOW??
IMO they can have time for all the awards if they just cut out the BS and move it along. I enjoy seeing cinematographers and editors get their due. Stop having presenters present other presenters. Just pick up the pace.
YES, agreed. I actually have been annoyed in past years at how they have shortened the presentation of the makeup and costume awards – I enjoy seeing the little blurbs that show something going from an idea to reality (like the 5 second overviews they would do). And I think cinematography is a really important award. I mean, they all are, but cinematography often is an indicator of other winners for the night.
Honestly, I would rather hear the thank-you speeches from the costume designers and editors than some of the actors. Those are the people who rarely get the spotlight…..let them have their due.
There are so many other stupid things to cut out of the awards show before cutting out the actual awards.
Yes! Why are they making this so complicated? It can’t be THAT hard.
Cut the nonsense. Have the presenters do a bunch of categories so there’s less introduction/walking around time. Ask winners to keep their speeches short. If they reduced everything down a bit, there’d be plenty of time for everything.
What about lesser commercial brakes? This year they won’t have to pay a main peresenter, so moey saved and less commercials needed for the money.
It should be mentioned that by what I’m sure is total coincidence, the categories not being televised do not include any Disney nominees. Disney which owns ABC,l…which broadcasts the Oscars….HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Seriously does anyone want to still argue that these awards are based on merit? Seriously?!
I mean until industry pressure kicked in they were not going to have last year’s acting winners present because they wanted to use big stars….which basically is them admitting that winning an Oscar doesn’t actually mean very much. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 😂
I don’t like to listen to boring speeches either but the producers of the show just chose 4 categories THEY think are worth less than others. And that’s ugly.
I’ve said for years that they need to shorten the broadcast. Cut waaaay back on the number of awards handed out live (no disrespect meant, but the average schmo like myself doesn’t care one bit about the best adapted screenplay / sound editor / etc winner’s speech) and get rid of all of those ridiculous montages, except for the In Memoriam one.
I’m sure people would be upset about it, but it would make for a much better broadcast.
Some of the best films I have seen in recent years have been the Live Action Shorts. I’m outraged.
I’m a fan of cinematography as a category so this rubs me the wrong way too. 😀
Agreed. How on earth is cinematography NOT considered a major category? Ditto film editing.
SummerSky, agreed. See my comment below.
I wish they would cut out all the montages and spend more time showcasing the actual nominees. The montages don’t always have anything to do with the nominees. Especially with the awards show now being so early in the year, many people (*cough* me *cough*) don’t get a chance to see all the movies. So, no, I cant decide from a 30 second clip who should win, but at least it gives me a sense of the movie.
Also, I think if the Oscars just stopped trying to be so funny it would got a lot faster. Stop it with all the weird selfies in the aisle (sorry Ellen) and stop it with running around and trying to surprise the celebrities and such.
Awards, in memoriam montage, song nominees.
As someone who has an immediate family member in the Academy all I have to say is that this decision is just so freaking rude. EVERYONE nominated for an Oscar has done incredible work and deserves their moment just as much as EVERYONE else in that room.
And way to tell several key players that they are less important to the movie making process than others just because they don’t land magazine covers. They know that a movie would look like crap without good cinematographers as well as good makeup and hair people.
Besides, while the Oscars have become a major source of entertainment for the general public, it still very much is a event for the members of the film community, which is even more apparent in person. I just don’t get why they would want to isolate members of that community and Oscar winners in particualar.
THIS EXACTLY.
I like cinematography, live action shorts, and make-up, personally. I’d happily give up editing and sound/sound mixing though.
I think the other issue they have is pacing the “big” awards. They really backload best actress, actor, director, and film and if they spread the acting awards and such throughout the evening, the middle categories wouldn’t feel like such a slog.
People who watch this know what this shit is and appreciate it. Why bother??
I’d be interested to see what the member of the Academy would want. Yes it’s a television show, but it’s supposed to be a celebration of that organization. Maybe they only want to see the big 12, but I suspect those actually IN the industry have a higher appreciation of the four categories getting demoted to commercials.
Personally I consider cinematography and film editing to be two essential elements that can make or break a movie and have a profound effect on the whole. I mean, cinematography???!!! What are movies but moving pictures? And film editing? What are movies but how those pictures are sequenced?? I find the choice of those two to be horrible decisions. Horrible.
What about cutting some of the forced jokes, selfies, pizza deliveries or random people being brought into the teather like a cheap candid camera and instead focusing on the awards and the winner’s speeches?
I also don’t care for most of the songs or musical acts presented every year so that’s a way to make room without insulting the artists.
I think the nominees under the affected categories should boycott and not attend this year’s hot mess.
Like many previous years, I will refuse to watch the Oscars. I’ll watch the Red Carpet arrivals and spill some tea with a friend if she is up for the phone call. The Oscars will be such a mess this year. Mark my word…
Cinematographers, as well as editors and also make-up/fx people, play an integral part in film making. The Oscars was basically the one worldwide public spotlight these professions had once a year. I cannot believe that the Acadamy will cut them out of the live telecast – some this year, others possibly the next year(s) – plus I really don’t see how that will help ‘streamline’ the event. Cut all the presenter shit and crappy jokes read from the teleprompter, lose most montages and trim down the mostly super boring and way too long honorary bits. But not awarding these categories as part of the main event (yeah right, they “volunteered”…)?
Cinematographers are amongst my biggest heroes in the film world. This decision by the Academy means that after having watched the Oscars live every year for the past 30 plus years, I am done with it.
They literally don’t understand what they’re working with.
It’s the dumbest MBA nonsense, running whatever business you’re in as a widget factory, and thinking you can make more money by promoting your best-selling widget instead of focusing on and developing what’s unique to your product/industry/artform.
These people should not be in charge of anything.
This is so infuriating. Some of the most memorable and Oscar-winning films in history (Star Wars, Annie Hall to name but two) were saved and made great in editing. And what movie that was great in every other way would win if it didn’t have impressive cinematography?
The current Academy leadership should be booted out. They are clueless and out of touch with modern culture, current events and the basics of their own industry. Movies are not just a product, and that’s what the Academy should be demonstrating with the Awards. Boiling the event down to celebrity actors, directors and producers makes it LESS not more interesting.
If they want to save time, cut out those pointless video montages which probably add up to at least half an hour of every Academy broadcast, needlessly reminding you of classic scenes from old movies which we all remember anyway, instead of showing these people and their good work in this year’s films.
Btw, I highly recommend this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMyMxMYDNk
It speaks to Marcia Lucas’s contribution to Star Wars and how she masterminded the edit of the final Death Star attack in the first movie. She literally invented a character in editing to make that scene work and won an Oscar for it, because her peers recognized the work that she and her fellow editors on that movie did to save the standard George Lucas unconnected gibberish. It’s amazing how all the bearded boys who whine about women and SJWs in the current trilogy hardly ever mention Marcia Lucas’s key contribution to the original Star Wars.
Steven Spielberg’s editor had him film a scene in her pool to add to the final cut of Jaws! But yeah, let’s keep propping up the GreatMan theory of directing and art by erasing the behind-the-scenes talent (especially if they’re women and POC) who are an equally essential part of the TEAM that made great projects what they are. Just appalling.
Absolutely horrible. What a total slap in the face to those categories. Kaiser, you honestly can sit there and say cinematography is a “lesser” category? Wow. I’ve been watching the Oscars for 50 years. Grew up in a family of big film and theater enthusiasts. What is happening to the Oscars this year is blasphemous. Just when the Academy is starting to understand that fans want more diversity in front of and behind the cameras, the producers want to cut the awards to the technical talent. And don’t ignore the fact that a couple of these categories have a lot of women nominees. If all you want to see are the gowns and pretty faces, watch E!’s red carpet show. There are many fans around the world who want to hear that acceptance speech from the artists behind the scenes. I want to enjoy their moment in the spotlight too. Ugh. So bad.