The upcoming Oscars broadcast is probably one of the more controversial in the awards show’s long history, and it hasn’t even aired yet.
Beset by the Kevin Hart hosting issue earlier this year, the Motion Picture Academy didn’t make life any easier for itself when it announced that the awards for Cinematography, Editing, Make-up, Hairstyling, and Live-Action Short would not be shown.
Of course, this gave rise to a new incident for the Oscars because many people saw this as a slap in the face to the people and teams nominated in those categories.
Cinematography, in particular, drew rounds of condemnation from potential viewers. Given that so much of the art of making films is also wrapped up in the film’s visual presentation, omitting Editing and Cinematography seems like a strange cut to make.
It didn’t last long and, today, the Academy is walking back its plans to delete these segments.
The Motion Picture Association said in a statement quoted by Deadline: “The Academy has heard the feedback from its membership regarding the Oscar presentation of four awards – Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short, and Makeup and Hairstyling…All Academy Awards will be presented without edits, in our traditional format. We look forward to Oscar Sunday, February 24.”
The main reason cited for the initial cuts was the long run time for the show. That said, cutting these segments from an awards show that is otherwise known for being staunchly traditional just to save time wasn’t the best way to do this according to critics. Some people point to the dead time during the Oscars as one area that could be fixed with Deadline’s Mike Fleming, Jr., even suggesting that all nominees be present on stage to save time between award announcement and acceptance speech.
