The Oscars’ Controversial Decision to Pre-Tape Certain Categories Leads to Backlash

Decision by the Academy to Pre-Tape 8 Awards Draws Backlash

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to pre-tape 8 awards which, in turn, would make live presentation of those awards absent from the actual Oscars ceremony.

There are many people eagerly awaiting the results of some of the less popular categories on this year’s Academy Awards. Who doesn’t want to see the battle of Cruella, House of Gucci and The Eyes of Tammy Faye as they duke it out with Dune and Coming 2 America for Best Makeup and Hairstyling? Seemingly, the Academy doesn’t mind cutting that award out of the live presentations and that is one of the 8 categories that will be pre-taped before the actual ceremony and rolled into the telecast. Just a few hours after that controversial decision was surprisingly made by the Academy, some people took to issuing statements to express their outrage with the choice. This decision was made to keep the show full of entertainment value which, in turn, would supposedly increase viewership.

While the Academy plans on having solid presenters this year (Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall), the 94th Academy Awards which is set to air on March 27th may feel a little light due to the exclusion of the live presentation of these categories. Besides the great Best Makeup and Hairstyling nominees, one of the other categories that will be pre-taped is Best Film Editing. That’s another exciting category as The Power of the Dog and Dune will be up against Tick, Tick… Boom!, King Richard and Don’t Look Up. Regardless of how popular the films are in a given category, though, these awards being pre-taped could take the suspense and fun out of the show and potentially tarnish the whole principal on which the Oscars were founded. Which categories are more important than others? Isn’t an Oscar an Oscar regardless of the category?

The other affected categories are as follows: Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Documentary Short, Best Animated Short and Best Live Action Short. I, for one, loved the ceremony when Paperman won the Best Animated Short Oscar at 2013’s ceremony and could imagine fans of this year’s Best Animated Short nominees being disappointed not to see their favorite short as part of the main action on the telecast. The controversial decision was made known on a Zoom call with the slate of nominees in the selected categories.

The Academy plans to roll the Oscar winners of the pre-taped determinations into the actual show in an effort to save on time that will be used to keep the show moving at a faster pace (applause could be cut out, for example), but some people believe the Oscars isn’t about that. The Academy Awards has always been about giving the best people in film their moment to shine. The American Cinema Editors Board of Directors is just one organization which took to issuing a statement to express concern regarding this decision by the Academy.

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