Frustrations in some quarters over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ plan to award Oscars to eight mostly artisanal categories ahead of Sunday’s ABC broadcast, and then weave edited versions of those winners into the live show, may prompt protests that all increase way to the podium at the Dolby Theater.
Cinema Audio Society President Karol Urban confirmed Thursday that a plan was in the works that would allow attendees to wear their guild badges backwards during Sunday’s ceremony and winners to turn their Oscars inside out when accepting them.
“There are a variety of different organizations working together to find ways to prevent their voices from being cut off,” said Urban, who leads the group representing sound mixers. “The closer the Oscars get, the more solidarity there is with more and more craftsmen. If anything positive comes out of this very horrific situation this year, it is that as the day approaches, we become stronger and stronger.”
Sources told Deadline that murmurs of a plan of action were beginning among some members of the sound community, one of the affected categories due to pre-show treatment, a list that also includes editing, makeup and hair styling, original score, production design and documentary, animated short includes and live-action short film.
The idea we’re hearing “is spreading” is that nominees in one or more of these categories would wear their academy or guild pins inside out to protest, in what many say is an insult because during the ABC show not be celebrated live. In some cases, winners might hold their Oscar statuettes upside down when accepting them on stage.
“It’s not an organized thing. It’s word of mouth,” a source told Deadline Today of the protest plans. “People talk about wearing their Academy pins and holding their Oscar statuettes upside down when they win one. Some will definitely go there, some won’t. It’s spreading. It gets some currency.”
Sources say the idea is spreading to the other crafts left out. Most are represented by trade unions, so expressions of solidarity are possible.
Earlier this week, the CAS urged the Academy to “use these last few days before its 94th awards ceremony to choose the bold and bold path of inclusivity, by respecting all categories and presenting them live.” The Association of Motion Picture Sound echoed the plea, saying that by following the tentative plan, “those categories will be flagged as somewhat less important ‘secondary’ skills.”
“We all had faith that the Academy would celebrate all filmmakers,” Urban told Deadline Thursday. When asked why the pre-taped category plan is bad when the winners are shown on the show anyway, she replied: “Because what we’re going to say is moderated and trimmed and limited and we all know it as well. Another of the.” categories involved, Best Edit, how effective editing a story can be. It lowers the votes category. Also, I find it annoying that it’s not live in front of a full audience of like-minded people. We don’t get that applause of support from the entire community of equal filmmakers. This is very heartbreaking.”
The sound community has seen their Oscar categories go from two to one since last year, when the Academy merged sound mixing and sound editing into one omnibus sound category. Sound of Metal won the Sound Oscar last year.
This year’s sound nominees include the teams from Belfast, Dune, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story.
Academy and Oscars producer Will Packer has defended the current plan for taping the eight categories, saying it’s part of a push to speed up the show and increase ratings that have stalled in recent years. But since the plan was first unveiled in late February, many prominent figures have spoken out against it, including Academy Board of Governors member Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, and numerous guild leaders including American Cinema Editors and IATSE President Matt Loeb, who described the move as “harmful”.
At least two members of the academy — four-time Academy Award nominee and Coen Brothers collaborator Peter Kurland and frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator Tom Fleischman — have left the group over the plan.
The 94th Annual Academy Awards takes place from coast to coast on Sundays and begins at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT.