Industry figures urge Academy to reverse telecast plan in open letter

After Steven Spielberg made his views known on the Academy’s telecast plans earlier this week more than 70 high-profile industry figures have urged the body to reverse its decision in an open letter.

Filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Katherine Kennedy, composer John Williams and production designer Dante Ferretti wrote to Academy president David Rubin after the Academy said it would present eight Oscars prior to the live telecast of the 94th Academy Awards on March 27 and include edited footage of acceptance speeches in the three-hour on-air show on ABC.

Claiming the plan would relegate the eight categories to the rank of “second-class citizens”, the letter said, “To diminish any of those individual categories in the pursuit of ratings and short-term profits does irreparable damage to the Academy’s standing as impartial arbiters, responsible stewards of our industry’s most important awards”.

The signatories went on to say that while they understood the need to create a more entertaining show, “demeaning” crafts essential to cinema was not the way to go about it. Oscar telecast ratings have been in steady decline for years and while 2021 was a so-called asterisk year during the pandemic, last year’s show delivered the lowest ever viewership of 10.4m.

The letter added, ”For nearly a century, the Academy Award has represented the gold standard in recognizing and honoring all the essential crafts in filmmaking. Now, as we approach Oscar’s 100th year, we are deeply troubled that this gold standard is being tarnished by valuing some filmmaking disciplines over others, relegating those others to the status of second-class citizens. Critical artistic crafts like music scoring, film editing, production design, makeup, hairstyling and sound will always deserve the same respect and recognition as crafts like acting, directing and visual effects.”

The eight categories are: editing, score, sound, production design, make-up/hairstyling, documentary short, animated short, and live-action short.

On Monday Spielberg, an Academy governor and Oscar winner who is nominated again this year, said, “I feel that at the Academy Awards there is no above the line, there is no below the line. All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can.”

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