ALL THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE 2019 OSCARS, EXPLAINED
by Derin Savaşan
With less than a week to go until showtime, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences —aka the Oscars— has suffered yet another blow last week, and admitted it's still “tweaking the script” for this year's ceremony.
Ha. That’s new.
This is the Oscars we’re talking about, not the Globes.
That being said, I thought it’d be a great idea to recap all the controversy surrounding the 2019 Oscars ahead of the ceremony, which will be held on Sun, Feb 24.
Buckle up people. This is about to get pretty controversial.
1. THE NOT-SO-POPULAR ‘POPULAR’ FILM CATEGORY
The Oscars' troubles started back in August when the Academy announced it was making 3 big changes. The following is the original tweet from The Academy.
I, personally, don’t have a problem with the third one, mainly because I think the Oscars telecast is so f*cking long. Considering that the first ever Oscars in 1929 were held for only 15 minutes, the 2018 Oscars’ 4 hour-runtime was a nightmare.
The second one is OK-ish. There isn’t that much to say about it.
The "achievement in popular film”? Not an instant hit, I would say.
These changes were designed to liven up the broadcast, which suffered record-low ratings in 2018. I get it, but is "achievement in popular film” really the way to go?
"We have heard from many of you about improvements needed to keep the Oscars and our Academy relevant in a changing world."
This is John Bailey, the Academy's president and CEO. The man is right, improvements were needed, but not of this kind.
This proposal angered many in the movie industry who believed it would create a two-tier system of popular and unpopular films —pitting huge superhero franchises like W onder Woman against small art-house pictures.
So the idea was canned. But it may still get a reboot.
The Academy said in its statement that "implementing any new award nine months into the year creates challenges for films that have already been released" but the proposal would be given further discussion.
Yikes.
2. NO HOSTS THIS YEAR (SRRY KEVIN HART!)
The drama continued a few months later when American comedian Kevin Hart was announced as this year's host.
In a post on Instagram, Hart said hosting the Oscars had been a dream of his for years, but it took just two days for the internet to turn Hart’s dream into a nightmare.
The now-deleted homophobic comments Hart had made on Twitter almost 10 years ago resurfaced, and the Academy was forced to give him an ultimatum.
"Kevin, apologise for your tweets or we're going to have to move on and find another host." Hart said he was told. Hart chose to pass on that apology as he'd addressed the comments "several times" before.
So it was back to the drawing board for the Academy, but the mess with Hart made finding a replacement extremely difficult.
Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres tried urging Hart to reconsider, twice, but Hart kindly refused.
As of now, the Oscars are going hostless for the second time in its history. Umpf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXtlGdPenbc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWlAIbxoLmc
3. ACADEMY UNDER PRESSURE
A few days after Hart ruled out hosting the Oscars, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) accused the Academy of pressuring celebrities not to appear/present at other award ceremonies. The guild, which presented its own awards show in January, said it had received multiple reports of "attempts to control the awards show talent pipeline".
"Actors should be free to accept any offer to participate in industry celebrations The apparent attempt by the Academy to keep our members from presenting on their own awards show is utterly outrageous and unacceptable."
Nicely done, SAG.
In case you missed it, the Academy has promised a "phenomenal" line-up of presenters to make up for the lack of host.
4. THE AWARDS THAT WERE CUT (AND QUICKLY ADDED BACK IN)
Soooo... the Academy initially planned to present a few major awards in the ad breaks to shorten the broadcast.
Appreciated, but no thanks.
Awarding the Oscars for make-up and hairstyling, live action short, editing and cinematography during commercial breaks, and playing the highlights from the winners' acceptance speeches later in the show, are both very bad ideas.
As you’d expect, the Academy’s decision didn't fly with many in the film industry.
Alfonso Cuaron —the director whose film Roma is up for 10 awards this year, including Best Picture— wasn’t a fan of this change either.
"In the history of cinema, masterpieces have existed without sound, without colour, without a story, without actors and without music."
Wise words from a wise man.
Almost 500 actors, directors, composers and filmmakers, including the likes of George Clooney, Sandra Bullock and Robert De Niro, signed an open letter to the Academy asking it to reverse the change.
Now it's been scrapped.
…
So what do we do now?
I know for a fact that I’ll be watching the broadcast on Sun, Feb 24 regardless of the controversy around it.
The real question is, will you be?
