Riding a wave of plummeting viewership and unable to find a single qualified host, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made a bold decision for the 2019 Oscars: to present the Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing awards during commercial breaks.
The Academy always issues a number of its scientific and technical awards at a separate ceremony on a different night. With dozens of different accolades and a limited amount of time to present them, it only makes sense that more niche categories would be withheld from primetime. But the Academy’s decision to pull two of the most prestigious awards in cinematic history from the live broadcast is beyond misguided. It’s pure farce, exemplifying how divorced Hollywood has become from the art of filmmaking.
To pull two other awards, Best Live-Action Short Film and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, is bad enough, but cinematographers and editors breathe the soul into cinema. Best Cinematography is as old as the Oscars themselves, and Best Film Editing is just a few years younger. Cinematography and editing are the only two magical ingredients that make stories into films instead of theater. They’re also where the technical science of film and the art of world and narrative-building intersect, two features in the title of the Academy.
And this isn’t any old year. Not only does the Academy need to restore faith in Hollywood as serious center of cinema after the disastrous fallout of the post-#MeToo era, but Alfonso Cuaron has also made history as the first person to receive a nomination for director and cinematographer for the same film. By sidelining the most serious awards so the Academy can add a few more tawdry comedic bits guaranteed to make no one laugh, they’re prematurely inviting all the hate they’ll receive.
As to why the Academy would spit on the backbone of the film industry, I have a hunch. ABC airs the Oscars, and Disney owns ABC. This year, Disney leads the pack for Oscar nominations, with 17 in total. Of the categories in which they were eligible, can you guess in which four they earned none?
