The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has decided to drop four major categories from the LIVE broadcast of 91st Oscars, to be held in Los Angeles on February 24, in order to reduce the show's running time to three hours.
The affected categories are cinematography, film editing, live-action short and makeup and hairstyling, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Academy president John Bailey announced the decision to present Oscars during commercial breaks in a membership email on Monday.
"Viewing patterns for the Academy Awards are changing quickly in our current multi-media world, and our show must also evolve to successfully continue promoting motion pictures to a worldwide audience," he wrote.
Bailey added the four categories will be streamed online in partnership with ABC and on Oscar.com and the Academy's social channels, and the winners' speeches will air later in the broadcast.
This comes after the Academy's board of governors approved a plan in August to present some of the 24 awards categories during breaks.
The move by the Academy has been met with severe criticism from several people, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.
Toro, who received Best Picture and Best Director Academy Award for Shape of Water in 2018, said "Cinematography and Editing are at the very heart of our craft." Shape of Water was nominated in both the categories last year.
If I may: I would not presume to suggest what categories to cut during the Oscars show but - Cinematography and Editing are at the very heart of our craft. They are not inherited from a theatrical tradition or a literary tradition: they are cinema itself.— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) February 12, 2019
Who the hell are these changes even for?! Do they think they will woo viewers? Do they think this will somehow please loyal viewers? All this will do is diminish the time in the limelight for people who otherwise never stand in it, to no good end.— Daniel Summers (@WFKARS) February 12, 2019
The Oscars get shit for being elitist but they are one of the only awards shows that televises winners in the craft categories. This decision is reprehensible. Shame on the Academy. Shame on ABC. If you don’t love a 3+ hour Oscars, you don’t love the Oscars. https://t.co/zSNOTDHhSQ— Chris Schleicher (@cschleichsrun) February 11, 2019
Because cinematography and makeup are not important in filmmaking... ???? https://t.co/OEPwxoG4PT— Margarita Noriega (@margarita) February 12, 2019
Even without a host's warm-up number & monologue taking up time, they feel they still need to eliminate those from the live broadcast?!? Shameful. Those categories were their only time to shine.— Jon Forsythe and Vote November 6th (@JonJForsythe) February 12, 2019
I find that to be really dumb, I'm sure that if they cut out a little comedy they could have easily had time to give out the awards to the best film editing, and makeup honors.— Kio (@KioTheBat) February 12, 2019
I agree. Every role in the film making process deserves their time to shine during the presentation of the awards. It’s not all about the actors, it’s also about the behind the scenes. (on a side note, your tweet was featured in a Mashable article https://t.co/lGJpeu9Tb1 )— ❄️Folfaroo❄️ (@DoxVulupine) February 12, 2019
This year's Academy Awards have been taken over by a series of controversies. Earlier its decision to introduce a new 'popular film' category sparked major backlash, following which the Academy decided to scrap it. The Academy has also elected to forgo a host for this year's awards ceremony after American comedian Kevin Hart opted out of the show within hours of being selected when he refused to apologise for his past homophobic remarks that had resurfaced on Twitter.
Follow @news18movies for more
Comments
0 comment