Steven Spielberg is disappointed with pre-recording eight Oscar categories
"One craft is just as indispensable as the next" says the West Side Story director.
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Steven Spielberg has expressed his disappointment that the Motion Picture Academy has decided to cut the live presentation of eight Academy Awards from this year’s telecast.
“I feel very strongly that this is perhaps the most collaborative medium in the world. All of us make movies together, we become a family where one craft is just as indispensable as the next,” the director told Deadline.
The eight categories that are being excised from the broadcast are Production Design, Sound, Original Music Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Film Editing, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, and Animated short.
“I feel that at the Academy Awards there is no above the line, there is no below the line,” Spielberg adds. “All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together live at 5.”
The ratings for the Oscars have steadily declined for years, and in a move typical of Academy cluelessness, the latest answer to goose viewers of the annual awards show is to… not present some of the awards while probably peppering in some bad comedy, musical numbers, and forgetting to add people to the “In Memoriam” collection. Instead, the Academy plans to release the names of winners in the aforementioned categories to social media before the ABC broadcast, which ironically will probably mean more people will be aware of the winners considering the decrease in Academy Award viewership. Nobody’s asking our opinion, but how about they just give out all the awards and let everyone who wins this monumental achievement just thank everyone they want to thank? It’s been years since we’ve had anything as stupid—but at least memorably stupid—as Rob Lowe singing with Snow White or 1974’s streaker.
Spielberg’s West Side Story is up for seven Oscars, including Best Director, as well as Production Design and Sound which are affected by the decision. These days, Spielberg serves on the Academy’s Board of Governors, but they have a long history of not paying attention to him going as far back as 1976 when he was snubbed for a Best Director nomination for Jaws.
The 94th Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 27.
23 Comments
I agree wholeheartedly with Spielberg’s statement, but it’s hard to believe he’s being genuine, given that this is the same guy who clutched pearls about Netflix films being eligible at all, and this is shaping up to be the first year where a Netflix movie wins Best Picture. Also, as much as the Academy’s move here is a giant middle finger to film professionals and the “movie lovers” they’re trying to “unite,” and should be universally and constantly lambasted until they take it back, I have a hard time buying the man who replaced guns with walkie-talkies as having his finger on the pulse of the movie-going audience.
You really think Don’t Look Up is going to win??
“Power of the Dog” looks like the front-runner
I think the academy is wrong to do this, but their reasoning is sound. The vast majority of viewers care about best picture and best lead/supporting actor/actress. Maybe best director. Otherwise they just watch to see pretty people in fancy clothes. They don’t care about editing, don’t know why there are two different awards for sound and screenplay, are bored by documentaries, foreign films, and short films they will never see, and go to the bathroom during any of the technical stuff. So if you want to draw eyeballs, give them less of what they don’t really care about and show more stars in formalwear.
Yo not everyone thinks documentaries are boring and I have a great deal of respect for artists who create compelling films in a shorter format. When Parasite won Best Picture it was such a big moment because it IS a foreign film. Crawl back in your hole with your reductive assessment of the arts. The world doesn’t revolve around you and solely your interests despite what you clearly think. Idiot.
Mrs. F. watches the red carpet stuff and then we turn on something else once the ceremony starts.
Blame that jerk who talked way too long at last years awards
Mr. Spielberg certainly never lacked confidence.
Just show the awards, maybe a musical performance or two, and then the In Memorium segment.That’s it. Why are we making this so difficult? Taking away awards from the hard working crew members for a fucking FAN POLL is not going to make your ratings go dramatically up.
If there is no above the line and below the line then why are science and tech awards not given out during the telecast?Also I think some of these awards will become irrelevant in the coming years. Like look at Endgame and how in the time travel scenes the actors just wore mocap suits rather than time travel suits and the costumes were added later. As that kind of thing becomes more popular how can you have best costume design?
“best costume design” means designing a costume. The VFX artists designed the time travel costumes. The award doesn’t automatically need to go to some kind of tailor.
uh because there always will be other movies than ‘avengers endgame’.
Sure now, but how long before it is easier for every major movie to do it like that. Or look at the hair and make up Oscar. There are tons of stories about movies where someone’s face is fixed or they are de-aged in post production. If that becomes the norm, then what is the point of a hair and make up Oscar. Or production design, look at the system that Jon Favreau is using on The Mandolorian. No sets minimal props, and the studio is a big room covered in HD screens, and the sets are all done in CG. If more and more productions do that then who wins best production design? If these things become easier the movies that don’t use them will become more and more obscure. Like how in the past the Oscars gave separate awards for cinematography and costumes for black and white movies. They stopped doing that when black and white movies stopped being as common.
The person who filled those screens is the Production Designer.Maybe more directly responsible than with physical sets.
In which case you could have a situation where the visual effects award and the production design award go to the same person for the same movie.
No, design and implemenation are still different things, much like the cinematographer dictates the look of the pictures of miniature spaceships.
Imagine being announced as a nominee in one of these categories, your family gets excited for you, and then a few weeks later it’s announced that it won’t be part of the Oscars.
Or even imagine being Steven Spielberg and some of your team is nominated for an Oscar that’ll be televised and some aren’t. In that viewpoint it really does give the impression that some Oscars are of a higher calibre than others.
They’re ruining the show for people who actually watch the Oscars, in an attempt to attract people who still won’t watch the Oscars.
Every craft and profession is entitled to recognize excellence and give out awards, and most of them do. But the Oscars are also a TV show — a TV show for which Disney/ABC pays a boatload of money. Best Costume Designer doesn’t deserve a national TV audience any more (or less) than Best Certified Public Accountant or Best Proctologist. The Oscars get a TV audience because a star-studded awards show is, in theory, an entertaining TV broadcast for which advertising can be sold. If ABC thinks that ratings will be improved by making such-and-such a change, the Academy can take that note, or it can walk away from the cash cow that primarily funds its operations and give its awards at a private ceremony hosted at the Holiday Inn. Now, ABC may be right or wrong about what the ratings problem is and how to fix it, but basically, it’s their decision to make, because they’re footing the bill. I get sick of the entertainment industry whining about this.
The Oscars is a TV show. If they want to honor everyone equally in these categories, go ahead and have your ceremony like always. Just don’t put it on TV. Then no one will show up to preen and pose for the camera.
people who don’t watch the oscars are never going to watch the oscars. there’s no magic formula to draw people in, all you can do is splinter the existing audience more. the ratings will continue to drop no matter what happens.the general public doesn’t really care about movies or award shows and never will.
Anyone wonder if the Oscars might do better live broadcasting for free on YouTube, with commercial breaks part of that live broadcast?I don’t know anything about the advertising industry, but surely 100 million viewers online worldwide are worth more than 10 million on couches at home in America….