They say failure is the key for success. On Sunday, the Oscars was a clear example of this. The Academy’s controversial decision to pretape eight technical award categories before the live show was certainly not the biggest takeaway from an eventful evening. The new format was met with disapproval by audience members, viewers at home, and Oscar winners in the lower-the-line fields.
The eight awards, which were presented before the live show, were rattled off in just half an hour to an audience of approximately half a dozen at the Dolby Theatre. The early audience got Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall as hosts. “Dune”Stars Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa
For weeks, Hollywood’s crafts and below-the-line professionals have protested the Academy’s decision to present these categories off the live show. Numerous guilds from all walks of the industry wrote to the Academy and its production staff asking for reconsideration. Some have even taken drastic steps to resist the Academy’s snub including resigning or silent protests.
Passionate audience members were also present during the preshow. “Nightmare Alley” nominee Guillermo del Toro(among the most staunch critics) showed their support on social media for craftspeople below the line.
But even with the eight categories shortened and edited, which was a deliberate effort to bring the show’s running time under three hours, the broadcast still ran 3 hours and 40 minutes. This means that it was longer than any of the previous Oscar ceremonies, which were at 3:21, 3:36, and 3:19 in 2020.
In other words, the format change failed at the one job it had – to make the Oscars shorter.
“I think it would be better if they could find a better way of shortening (the show),” said costume designer Jenny Beavan in the backstage press room, after winning her third career Oscar for Disney’s “Cruella.”Beavan was among 350 industry representatives who signed a petition opposing the pretape category decision.
Beavan, who won the award which was televised on live television, said that the new format was her favorite. “much better than I’d feared”However, it is still referred to as the “change.” “disrespectful.”
“I think (the Academy) has really got to think about it for next year,”She added. “I think it felt a little bit cheating on the people. … But then the minute the actual (Oscar hosts) came on, it just went into a different world.”
Cinematographer Greig Fraser (“Dune”The category of ) was also aired live and also voiced their disapproval at the new format.
“Films are made by, you know, the sound recorders, by visual effects supervisors, by the editors, by the productions designers,”He said. “And it seems odd to have some random relegation. I just want my particular collaborator – particularly, production design, editing, makeup and hair – to be equally rewarded for the job they do.”
There were several Oscar winners whose categories were captured during the preshow. “Dune”Joe Walker, film editor was the most forthright in his assessment of the changes.
Walker explained that Walker’s verbatim speech was his. “went down well” before the Academy’s editors “cut the beginning and the middle and the end of it.”
He continued, “We all stand together in the Academy with equal strength, and I feel strongly that that was a disservice to our eight categories that were not televised live. We understand the pressures on the Academy, financially, but also I think we all stand together. The original statue of the Oscar has five reels. You have five circles that represent the five branches of the academy as they started, and they are of equal size and strength.”
In Walker’s original speech (which can be seen Here via mezzanine recording by The New York Times’ Oscars reporter Kyle Buchanan), the editor begins by explaining that his job can sometimes make life difficult for his children, who hurl the name “Oscar nominee”Their father was sarcastic and they reacted to it.
“So you may not know that the words ‘Oscar nominated’ can be used, in the hands of a skilled 17-year-old, as an insult,”He said. “So thank you to the Academy for this upgrade.”
However, “upgrade” part was cut from the Oscar’s live broadcast – thus rendering the “insult”Part is somewhat odd taken out of context and without its punchline. The length of Walker’s original speech was 73 seconds. And what was aired on the live broadcast was 45 seconds, the Academy’s golden number for maximum speech lengths.
Walker addressed the journalists assembled, “Does anybody want to ask me about what it is like, as an irony, that, as an editor, my speech was edited tonight?”
Reactions to Walker’s speech, as well as those of other Oscar winners, are below: