The Academy Has Common Sense After All, Will Present All 24 Categories Live

Something John Bailey forgot about The Oscars

With the seal cracked on the single digits countdown (nine days to go!), things should be in place for The Academy Awards, right? People have turned in their ballots and now everyone is tallying up scores. If you're like me, you'll enjoy reading anonymous voter articles. However, what makes the Class of 2019 all the more impressive is that even this close to the air date things are once again changing. At the beginning of this week, Academy president John Bailey shot himself in the foot once again by suggesting that four categories would not be presented at the ceremony. Before diving into the responses, one had to ask "What did you expect?" The decision was met with universal ridicule and in one moment of rare clairvoyance Bailey decided to reverse his order. Good news everyone, The Oscars are presenting every category on the air! Consider this a victory in a year without too many. 

The ballad of John Bailey is one that has been going strong for almost a year now. Following last year's ceremony, he announced a series of new rules that The Academy would like to induct in the coming year. The most controversial was the Best Popular Film category, which was shot down after a few months of ridicule. The other big one that took longer to gestate was the idea of shortening the broadcast. For over half a year many wondered what that would entail. Earlier this week, it was revealed that FOUR categories would be pulled from broadcast. They were: Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Hair and Make-Up, and Best Live Action Short. The stipulation was that they would be broadcast later in the ceremony, minus the time it takes to walk up to the stage and reduced to 90 seconds TOTAL. 

Yes, that didn't go over quite as well as many thought. The big defense from The Academy was that these four categories would be rotated. By removing Best Cinematography, it was supposed to be an act of chivalry (or... something) on Bailey's part as a cinematographer to prove that he wasn't biased. Though one has to wonder how exactly he planned to rotate these things. Would he actually be true to his word, or (as I would assume) merely apply to "lower tier" nominees? It's hard to imagine Best Picture ever being reduced to a televised segment, but that's how Bailey's making it sound. To cut a dumb story short, what basically happened was a belief that this was an affront to the industry. After all, you can't make a film without cinematography (see this Letterboxd list for proof) and editing is part of any good profession (maybe The Academy's publicist needs a new editor?). These things NEED to be broadcast so that the artists can get the respect they deserve.

Lo and behold, this didn't go over well with just about anyone. Among the most vocal on cinematography and editing missing the show was last year's Best Picture/Best Director winner Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) who took to his Twitter to complain about it. This would lead to an open letter signed by hundreds within the industry (which you can read here), which included such unsubtle criticism like:

The Academy was founded in 1927 to recognize and uphold excellence in the cinematic arts, inspire imagination and help connect the world through the universal medium of motion pictures.

Unfortunately, we have drifted from this mission in our pursuit of presenting entertainment rather than in presenting a celebration of our art form and the people behind it.  

Relegating these essential cinematic crafts to lesser status in this 91st Academy Awards ceremony is nothing less than an insult to those of us who have devoted our lives and passions to our chosen profession.     

Additionally, fans petitioned on Twitter using the hashtag PresentAll24, which remained a constant presence over the past few weeks. Not since Oscars So White has there been a social movement that has rattled The Oscars' very core. While it's speculative at the moment how much influence this had, the overwhelming presence and awareness meant that it had some impact. Petitions were signed, supposedly above 14,000, and fans were just as mad as del Toro. The big break came when various members of the editing and cinematography branch demanded an emergency meeting. Unless you were in the room where it happened, you won't know what exactly was said. However, things took a turn for the best and... voila! The Oscars are presenting all 24 categories.

It's been a rough week, folks. The deja vu has been rich regarding Bailey backtracking every major decision he has made in the past year. Among the speculation why these four categories got the guillotine first were these: they represented the lowest grossing cumulatively of every category, and in a not-so-subtle-we're-respecting-the-art-but-not-really way it was the only four fields lacking a Disney-produced film (who owns the ABC station that is airing the ceremony). Even if it's merely coincidence, it does seem a bit suspicious that the underdogs were getting the boot. Yes, there's the excuse that Bailey has made that they want to respect every artist equally (thus why they're broadcasting it at all), but the thing he doesn't realize is that by editing (if only audiences could see that category live) the segment down to its core elements, you're basically doing a greatest hits of a presentation. You'll get to see Glenn Close cry for three minutes about how she's wanted that Oscar for 30 years, but heaven forbid that a cinematographer wants to be passionate on the one night of recognition. The only way to level the playing field was to go live, which they did already. So... why ruin a good thing?

One has to wonder what other big fiasco there is to be had in the remaining nine days before the broadcast. We've already seen the Best Original Song nominees get cut and then put back into the show. We've seen a host come and go in 12 hours. There's so much that has been done and reversed that it feels like we're in store for one last surprise. If presidential elections can have a November surprise, one has to wonder what else Bailey has in store. Stick around until we get to five days out, when it would be too late to change anything. Something's gotta happen before then. It only feels right that this year hits one last snag before it gives Rami Malek an Oscar and we get a gif of Bradley Cooper beating up a towel dispenser in the bathroom. It's been a long year, but at least something's gone right. One can hope this is the end of Bailey's ballad of misfortune, but who knows. We didn't need to believe that cinema's big night needed to be delegitimized for 10 months, but that's how things go. You roll with the punches. After all, look at what they did to the PricewaterhouseCoopers guy who posted pictures during the ceremony two years ago. Maybe Bailey's next.