Four Oscars Categories to be Announced at Commercial Break

hollywoodreporter.com: The Academy’s decision to present four of its Oscars during commercial breaks at the 91st Oscars, which ABC will air Feb. 24, didn’t meet with any applause when it was unveiled Monday. Film fans took to Twitter to complain loudly that four categories — cinematography, film editing, live-action shorts and hair and makeup — will be presented during commercial breaks, some using the hashtag #PresentAll24, a reference to the 24 awards on which Academy members began voting Tuesday.

But while a few Academy members were quick to question the move, others, when contacted by The Hollywood Reporter, appeared to accept it with something akin to disappointed resignation.

La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz was among the first to react to the news, tweeting a thumbs-down emoji.

"To hand out these awards in such a flagrantly dismissive manner is unconscionable," Alec Baldwin tweeted. "Cinematography? An afterthought? The Academy keeps sinking lower and lower w these ideas."

And actor-director Seth Rogen tweeted sarcastically, "What better way to celebrate achievements in film than to not publicly honor the people's who's job it is to literally film things."

Guillermo del Toro, director of last year’s best picture Oscar winner, The Shape of Water, tweeted, “If I may: I would not presume to suggest what categories to cut during the Oscars show but — Cinematography and Editing are at the very heart of our craft. They are not inherited from a theatrical tradition or a literary tradition: they are cinema itself.”

Responding to del Toro on Twitter, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins commented, "I couldn't agree more. If we are here to celebrate the craft and the medium, it's hard to imagine putting these categories down a tier from the others."

Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of Gravity, Birdman and The Revenant, seconded del Toro's sentiment, posting on his Instagram account, "Cinematography and editing are probably the 'elementary particles,' the primordial components of cinema. It's an unfortunate decision."

Their colleague, Roma's Alfonso Cuaron, who is nominated this year in the cinematography category, added his voice, tweeting, "In the history of CINEMA, masterpieces have existed without sound, without color, without a story, without actors and without music. No one single film has ever existed without CINEMAtography and without editing."