Reel Facts & Opinions: The Oscars Get Short

A dust-up has erupted around the upcoming 94^th Academy Awards. 

 

This week, it was announced that eight of the 23 categories will not be presented live. Those categories are the three short films (Best Animated, Live-action, and Documentary Short), along with Sound, Makeup/Hairstyling, Production Design, Editing, and Score. The presentations and acceptance of the eight awards will take place in the Dolby Theatre an hour before the telecast begins, which will be recorded and edited into the live broadcast. 

 

The move, which was first attempted in 2018 but quickly scrapped after a backlash, is being done to cut-down on the hefty running time of the ceremony, and to get it down to three hours. This also being done as a reaction to last year’s ratings, which were the lowest in the history of the Oscars. 

 

There is a double-edged sword at work here. The Tony Awards and The Grammys have done something similar in the past, and the Oscars broadcast has often been criticized as bloated. A tighter ship could certainly be run, but they’re going about it the wrong way. The categories that are being pre-taped will likely cut out acceptance speeches, which is a significant time-saver, but these are also the “below-the-line” categories that are won by the people behind-the-scenes. These people behind the curtain who build sets, style makeup, mix sound, and make all the important edits never get their proper due. And here, the Academy is taking that away from them. These are the “everyman” categories that are reachable for most of us, and this move makes the Hollywood dream seem even further away. The real head-scratchers are the Best Editing and Score. The latter will rob us of attention and tribute to beloved composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer, while the former omission takes attention away from one of the most vital categories on the path to Best Picture; two-thirds of all Best Picture winners have also won for Editing. 

 

Ratings and advertising, of course, is important. As they said in the Best Picture nominee THE RIGHT STUFF in 1983, “no bucks, no Buck Rogers”. There are solutions to low ratings and bloated running times, and this could very work…but at what cost? Right now, this shows that the Academy is worried more about ratings than inspiring young filmmakers or paying tribute to the many hands that make a movie move. And length is a non-issue. After all, this is an age where people will play video games or binge-watch a show for 10 hours, or plop down and not move for a four-hour football game. The Academy seems to have fallen out of touch with their audience and maybe that’s why the ratings have been where they are. 

 

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The 94^th Oscars are March 27^th.