The Oscars Have A New Controversy On Their Hands

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When it was recently announced that four awards during the upcoming Oscars would be given during commercial break to save time, Hollywood seemed to be okay with the decision. Then the Academy announced which awards were chosen, and the industry lost its mind. The awards you won’t see this year are those for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Hair and Makeup, and Best Live Action Short.

Russell Crowe was one of the first major celebrities to chime in, calling the decision, “fundamentally stupid… too dumb for words.”

Oscar winning director Alfonso Cuaron made his thoughts known on Twitter, “In the history of CINEMA, masterpieces have existed without sound, without color, without a story, without actors and without music. No one single film has ever existed without CINEMAtography and without editing.”

Seth Rogen had the harshest words, which have been shared over 80,000 times, “What better way to celebrate achievements in film than to not publicly honor the people’s who’s job it is to literally film things.”

Of course, the Academy is used to backlash recently. The industry was similarly critical when they announced a “Popular Film” category, so movies like Black Panther could be appropriately recognized. Based on industry feedback, the Academy canned the new category idea, and its voting body responded by nominating the superhero hit for Best Picture.

With the awards just a few weeks away, the Academy can’t change their new decision, and it will be interesting to see how ratings are affected and what happens to the Oscars moving forward.