A host of Hollywood luminaries, including Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Rachel Morrison, the first woman to be nominated for the best cinematography Oscar, have signed an open letter demanding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reverse its decision to relegate four Oscar presentations to ad breaks in the live telecast of its annual awards show.
The Academy’s decision to move the presentations for cinematography, editing, live action short, and makeup and hair out of the live TV broadcast (though it show them on a live stream on its website) has been greeted with a chorus of disapproval from the film industry.
The letter states: “Relegating these essential cinematic crafts to lesser status in this 91st Academy Awards ceremony is nothing less than an insult to those of us who have devoted our lives and passions to our chosen profession … When the recognition of those responsible for the creation of outstanding cinema is being diminished by the very institution whose purpose it is to protect it, then we are no longer upholding the spirit of the Academy’s promise to celebrate film as a collaborative art form.”
It goes on to include a quote from another of the letter’s signatories, actor-director Seth Rogen: “What better way to celebrate achievements in film than to NOT publicly honour the people whose job it is to film things.”
Scores of leading industry figures have added their names to the letter, including cinematographers Roger Deakins, Wally Pfister and Seamus McGarvey, directors Damien Chazelle, Karyn Kusama and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and actors Jude Law, Brad Pitt and Chloë Sevigny.
They join earlier protests from Russell Crowe, who called the decision “fundamentally stupid … just too fucking dumb for words”, and previous best director winners Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro.
The Academy responded with a statement, blaming “inaccurate reporting and social media posts” for “a chain of misinformation that has understandably upset many Academy members”. It says the four categories concerned were volunteered by branch heads to “have their nominees and winners announced by presenters, and included later in the broadcast”.
It added: “Such decisions are fully deliberated. Our show producers have given great consideration to both Oscar tradition and our broad global audience.”
The row is the latest mis-step to have hit the Academy as it seeks to reverse a catastrophic decline in ratings for its flagship TV broadcast. Its chosen host, Kevin Hart, stepped down after an outcry over perceived homophobic comments and tweets; a proposal for a best popular film Oscar was dropped after widespread ridicule; a plan to drop performances of three of the five Oscar-nominated songs had to be cancelled, and a suggestion that presentations by last year’s acting winners be ditched in favour of more attention-grabbing names was swiftly reversed.
•This article was amended on 14 February, to correct the statement that Rachel Morrison won the best cinematography Oscar.
