Oscar organizers are desperate for innovations to attract and retain their viewers on March 27.
After having established an audience award voted by American Internet users which seems to have gotten out of control, the American Academy of Cinema has brought out an old sea serpent. Shorten the ceremony by handing over a handful of statuettes in disciplines considered "minor" , in any case not very glamorous before the start of the live broadcast of the gala on the ABC channel.
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Eight technical categories and short films are targeted.
Either the statuette for the best sound, sets, make-up, costumes, animated short film, fiction and documentary.
And more surprisingly better soundtrack and better editing.
The winners' announcement and speeches will be pre-recorded to make the television coverage more dynamic.
These passages will be edited and incorporated into the retransmission between two scene changes or transitions, as is already done at the Grammy Awards and the Tony Awards, which reward the best in musical and theatrical production.
Dune
favorite of the relevant categories
The move should free up more airtime for musical, comedy and tribute numbers, Academy Award President David Rubin said in an email to Academy members and nominees.
The only concern will be to maintain the mystery of the identity of the winners until the broadcast.
This year,
Dune
by Denis Villeneuve could collect most of these statuettes in these so-called “technical” sections.
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The audience for the Oscars has been in free fall for the past few years.
The last edition, admittedly disrupted by the health restrictions linked to the pandemic, had attracted barely ten million spectators, a drop of 56% compared to the previous year which was already at a historically low level.
In the absence of big productions, the 2021 edition had seen an overrepresentation of independent cinema:
Nomadland, The Father.
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Unsurprisingly, this reform sparked an outcry from the branches concerned and moviegoers on Twitter.
Bitter failures
Ideas to reduce the number of Oscars to beef up the evening have so far been very unpopular, particularly within the technical Academy Academy colleges who work behind the scenes (editors, make-up artists, hairstylists, etc.) and for whom this evening represents the only moment of glory.
An attempt was made in 2018 to feature these same technical categories during ABC ad breaks.
Faced with the ire of professionals, already invisible in normal times, the Academy had abandoned the project.
Another much mocked experiment, the choice on March 27 to award the public prize, awarded after a vote organized via Twitter.
Unlike the Academy of Oscars, which has become much internationalized, which can be seen in the four nominations for the Japanese road-trip
Drive My Car
, this ballot is only open to American residents.
The obvious winner seemed to be the Marvel superhero film and box office savior
Spider-Man: No Way Home
, which just picked up a nomination in the special effects category.
Except that the networks of helping fans, it is the romantic comedy
Cinderella
worn by singer Camila Cabello which is currently in the lead.
Facts and the seventh art are sometimes stubborn.
