Guillermo del Toro is really not into the Oscars’ new format
The Nightmare Alley director made a statement about the pre-taping of eight categories at this year's Academy Awards ceremony
Aux News Guillermo del Toro
There has been a lot of discourse surrounding the Academy Awards this year. There’s discussion about its current relevance, the ceremony’s “razzle dazzle,” and its COVID-19 procedures. Now, Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro has brought up another point of contention: The new format for the upcoming awards ceremony.
The Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts recently unveiled its new format, which involves pre-taping a select eight categories and announcing the winners in a pre-show. The categories moved to this lower-tier position include Best Production Design, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Sound, Documentary Short, Animated Short and Live-Action Short. After the last couple of arduous years in the film industry, del Toro thinks this change could not come at a worse time.
“The nominees that we have here, most of the ones we have here tonight, [worked] against many, many difficult odds [to get here], and we don’t do [films] alone,” del Toro said while receiving the Hollywood Critics Association’s Filmmaking Achievement Award. “We do them together, and the people that made them with us did it risking everything in a pandemic, showing up, making the day, somewhat in a miracle.
“I must say, if any year was the year to think about it, this is not the year not to hear their names live at the Oscars. This is the year to sing it, and sing it loud,” Del Toro continued. “We shouldn’t do it this year; we shouldn’t do it ever, but not this year… And we must say this… 2021 was a f**king great year for movies.”
Del Toro’s own Nightmare Alley is up for several Oscar awards this year, including Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, and Costume Design. The Oscars will air on March 27 from the Dolby Theatre.
24 Comments
Wow, that was…rousing.Tired of hearing (reading) the word “fucking” the way people used to say “like.” There are more creative ways to be emphatic.
‘Fuck’ is an extremely versatile word that also gets people’s panties in a twist for no good reason, I’m a big fucking fan of it.
The fuck you say.
“A lot of people helped me on that fish-fucking movie I won an Oscar for. And they fucking deserve the recognition!”
Get Out should have won in 2018. But, no: “We’ve given the other two guys – Iñárritu and Cuarón – a nod for best picture/director, so here’s your too (and we’re sorry about Pan’s Labyrinth”).
Get Out is highly overrated and only receives the accolades it does because of THE MESSAGE (TM).
I never really understand the kvetching about the Oscars ceremony. Yeah, it’s overlong and self-indulgent. Who cares? It’s one night a year. Give me all the nominees, give me the much-mocked “Movies are cool” montages (movies are cool!), give me the dumb skits. It’s a show to award trophies to people who make believe for a living. Don’t stress over it.
“Yeah, it’s overlong and self-indulgent. Who cares?”Perhaps you don’t, but the audience as a whole cares, and they’re tuning out in droves. Frankly, these cuts are likely too conservative to stem the ratings free-fall.
I think you are assuming people are not watching anymore because the show is too long, when the fact is I think people just don’t give a fuck about it anymore
…because it’s too long. At least that’s one of the reasons.They could do a tight 90 min with just the Acting/Best Picture/Director award and ratings would dramatically improve. But, there’s only so many ads you can run in 90 min, so that won’t happen anytime soon.
This! Exactly. The people tuning out just don’t care. Stop chasing them for ratings. Give me the bloated, 4-hour, movie-nerd-a-thon I want and stop trying to cater to people who aren’t your target audience. You’ll never make them happy. Make me and Guillermo happy instead. It’s one night a year.
He’s standing up for people who never get enough recognition.
Personally, I think they should pre-record the whole thing and then edit it down for broadcast. How much of the runtime is just waiting for the winners to walk up to the podium?
Fast forward that part like in sports highlights.
Make a RedZone for Oscars. Call it RedCarpetZone.
I mean, you can currently just read a list of the winners the next day. nobody says you need to watch it live.
How’s about we skip the Oscars altogether and hand out awards to healthcare workers instead?
As an ICU nurse, I have my speech.. “I want to thank all those understanding patients who kindly waited while I attended to a wild patient going through alcohol withdrawal, and the makers of IV Tylenol, allowing many to have adequate pain control without making them whacko!”
Just as long as you get to fund and stage it every year. Also everything you enjoy has to be replaced with someone saying “sustainable” a lot.
Huh? Won’t someone please think of the poor filthy rich and famous celebrities?!? They only have a dozen or so of these conceited circle jerks a year! How will we know what we should enjoy if studios don’t tell us which of them has run the most successful campaign to win the award?
Not surprising they don’t want to honor the people who actually make a movie look the way it does but rather, cater to the actors playing in it. I just hope Amazon’s Cinderella now wins fan favorite as a sort of spite on them.
I mean. Nobody gives a shit about the guy behind the computer. We want celebrity.
Yeah, 2021 was one of the best years for movies this decade so far.