Some of Hollywood’s most famous directors, including director James Cameron, producers Kathleen Kennedy and Lily Fini Zanuck, and composer John Williams, have joined the growing chorus of voices calling for the Academy to change course and present all 23 Oscars live on March 27.
In a letter sent today to Academy President David Rubin and received by Variety, more than six dozen film professionals, including several Academy Award winners, argue that a plan to present eight awards within an hour of telecast would “demean” these crafts and “degrade [them] to the status of second class citizens.
Eight: Original soundtrack, film editing, production design, makeup and hair, sound, documentary short, live action short, and animated short. The Academy continues to press for the nominees in these categories to be announced and for the winner’s acceptance speech to be streamed edited and aired as part of the three-hour ABC show.
This is not enough for these artists. “Degrading any of these individual categories in the pursuit of ratings and short-term profits will irreparably damage the Academy’s reputation as an unbiased arbitrator, responsible steward of our industry’s most important awards,” the letter says.
“Finding new audiences by enhancing the spectacle of television is a laudable and important goal, but it cannot be achieved by degrading the very crafts that, in their most outstanding manifestations, make the art of filmmaking worthy of celebration.”
They call on Rubin and his colleagues on the Academy Awards Committee to “in the strongest terms… reverse your decision. For nearly a century, the Oscars have represented the gold standard for recognizing and rewarding all the major crafts in filmmaking. Now, as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Oscars, we are deeply concerned that this gold standard is being tarnished as some disciplines of filmmaking are valued above others, relegated to the status of second-class citizens.
“Essential arts and crafts such as music scoring, film editing, production design, make-up, hair and sound will always deserve the same respect and recognition as arts such as acting, directing and visual effects,” the statement reads. letter.
Among the signatories is 90-year-old composer and five-time Oscar winner John Williams, who holds the record for all living people with 52 nominations. Director Steven Spielberg cited Williams’ assessment of Jaws last week in his own denunciation of the decision, stating that “Without John Williams, Jaws would be wearing dentures.”
Directed by Cameron, Joe Roth and Guillermo del Toro; producers Kennedy and Zanuck; writer Tony Kushner; costume designer Milena Canonero; production designers Dean Tavoularis, Dante Ferretti and Geoffrey Kirkland; and cinematographers Dante Spinotti and Vittorio Storaro among other signatories. Roth is also a former producer on the Oscars television show; he hosted the 2004 show.
More than three dozen composers have also signed, including Oscar winners Howard Shore, Dave Grusin, Alexandre Desplat, Stephen Price, Hildur Gudnadottir, John Corigliano, Tan Dun and Jan Kaczmarek; past Oscar nominees John Debney, George Fenton, Nicholas Britell, Terence Blanchard, Thomas Newman, James Newton Howard, David Newman, Dustin O’Halloran, Volker Bertelmann, John Powell and Alan Silvestri; and Emmy Award winner Ramin Djawadi.
Full text and list of signatories:
President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Dear President Rubin!
We, the undersigned, strongly urge you, along with your colleagues on the Awards Committee, to rescind your decision to remove the presentation of the eight categories of awards from this year’s live stream of the Academy Awards, including Best Original Score, Film Editing. , production design, makeup and hair, sound, a documentary short film, and an animated short and live action film.
For nearly a century, the Oscars have represented the gold standard for recognizing and rewarding all the major crafts in filmmaking. Now, as we approach the 100th anniversary of the Oscars, we are deeply concerned that this gold standard is being tarnished as some disciplines of filmmaking are valued above others and relegated to second-class status. Essential arts such as scoring, film editing, production design, make-up, hair and sound will always deserve the same respect and recognition as arts such as acting, directing and visual effects. Downgrading any of these individual categories in the pursuit of ratings and short-term profits will irreparably damage the Academy’s reputation as an unbiased arbiter and responsible steward of our industry’s most important awards.
Finding new audiences by increasing the spectacle of TV shows is a laudable and important goal, but it cannot be achieved by degrading the very crafts that, in their most outstanding manifestations, make the art of filmmaking worthy of celebration.
Sincerely,
Peter Burt
Bruce Berman
Volker Bertelmann
Terence Blanchard
Scott Bomar
Nicholas Britell
James Cameron
Milena Canonero
John Corigliano
John Debney
Guillermo del Toro
Alexandre Desplat
Ramin Javadi
Amy Doherty
Tan Dun
Laura Engel
Bruce A. Evans
Sven Faulconer
George Fenton
Dante Ferretti
Simon Franglen
Reynold Gideon
Michael Gorfein
Peter Gregson
Dave Grusin
Trevor Gurekis
Hildur Gudnadottir
Alex Heffes
Nate Heller
David Hirschfelder
Natalie Holt
James Newton Howard
Steve Jablonsky
Yonsi
Federico Yusid
Yan A.P. Kaczmarek
Kathleen Kennedy
Geoffrey Kirkland
Philip Klein
Christy Makosko Krieger
Tony Kushner
Maria Machado
Patty Macmillan
Judianna Makovsky
Richard Marvin
Nami Melumad
Robert Messinger
Thomas Newman
David Newman
Anna Nikitina
Dustin O’Halloran
Atli Orvarsson
John Powell
Stephen Price
Michael Rosenberg
Joe Roth
Sam Schwartz
Lisbeth Scott
Theodore Shapiro
Howard Shore
Alan Silvestri
Sam Slater
Alex Somers
Dante Spinotti
Herdis Stephansdottir
Vittorio Storaro
Tamar-kali
Dean Tavoularis
Fernando Velazquez
Chris Walden
Chris Westlake
Nathan Whitehead
John Williams
Andrew Zach
Lily Fini Zanuck
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