By now, most of you know that the Oscars will not be airing all of the awards this year, in hopes of making the show a short and sweet three hours long. However, me and a ton of other people have some issues to pick with the Academy and their decision.
The four categories not being aired this year are Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Live Action Short, and Best Hair and Makeup. My biggest issue with this choice is that, without cinematography and editing, there isn’t a film to be nominated for any other category. Both of those jobs are crucial to film making. Honestly, I think not airing Best Editing is the biggest slap in the face for film editors. They slave away all day in a dark room trying to perfect edits that you’ll never even notice, because you don’t notice the editing when it’s done well. Not airing these categories in order to save time is bogus. Why don’t they just say what they really want to say? That the general public, who they desperately want to watch their award show so their numbers don’t slip any more, are too dumb to appreciate those categories.
The Academy so desperately wants people to watch their awards show and yet they continuously insult the general public that they are begging. This is the “Best Popular Film” thing all over again. The Academy is alienating the public further and further.
And, to state that they are choosing to not broadcast these categories in order to shorten the run time is ridiculous. The program, without these three awards, is already three hours long. What is a half an hour or so more? Why not cut things like the length of the film clips shown for each actor nominated? Or script excerpts that are read for best screenplay? They’re not airing Film Editing but are airing both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing? I just don’t understand where the cut off is. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that all categories should be aired. Everybody deserves recognition for the areas of film they have worked on. The Academy shouldn’t be assuming what their viewers want to see and don’t care to see. Especially because they are, in fact, completely out of touch.
Will I be watching the Oscars this year? Probably not. Will I be following along with snarky commentary made on Twitter? Absolutely.