In an attempt to get people to watch the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that several awards will not be presented on-air during the 2022 Oscar ceremony on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Well, they kind of are. The Academy later clarified that they will film these eight categories and edit the winners’ acceptance speeches into the broadcast, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The actual awards will be given out while the big stars are still doing press on the red carpet, which is rude, but at least the winners will get a televised moment? All we’ll miss is the part where the winner walks to the stage and takes out a little folded sheet of paper with speech notes reminding them to thank their High School English teacher. Still, for the winners, it will make a big difference.
THR noted that the Tony Awards have been doing this with some of the technical categories for years. To quote Hamilton, that’s true! But when the Tony Awards do that they’re making room for more singing and dancing. What are the Oscars going to do with that precious extra time, more montages??
Personally, I think they backpedaled their decision — but that’s just my tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. When Deadline first reported this news, they noted that the AMPAS floated this idea in 2019 and ultimately reversed their decision because there was too much backlash. There were already whispers that some nominees may boycott the Oscars because of this decision, per Variety‘s reporting. So it’s possible that they changed their mind and are now telling us we “misinterpreted” the news.
These are the categories that will be presented before the show, not live on-air:
- Documentary (Short Subject)
- Film Editing
- Makeup and Hairstyling
- Music (Original Score)
- Production Design
- Short Film (Animated)
- Short Film (Live Action)
- Sound — which as you may recall used to be two categories, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, and has been folded into one category.
Why are they doing this?
So, is this just an attempt to make the broadcast shorter and let us all get to bed on a school night? Nope! Don’t forget that the AMPAS is also hell-bent on awarding an #OscarFanFavorite to a popular movie from 2022 as well as an “Oscars Cheer Moment” from *checks notes* any movie from every year.
So yeah… I don’t know what the Oscars are up to. These technical categories are such a good way to see the faces behind the films that you don’t normally see. They may even include the stars of tomorrow. For example, in 2004, the nominees for Best Short Film (Live Action) included future sought-after directors Taika Waititi and Andrea Arnold. Let the winners have their full fifteen minutes of fame!
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