Steven Spielberg is one of the more recent voices speaking up against the controversial changes made to this year’s Academy Awards.
As announced prior, to promote more audience success as a broadcasted event, the Oscars decided to award eight categories, including Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Animated Short Film, Best Live-Action Short Film, and Best Sound, ahead of the live show with footage that will be edited into the broadcast for viewers watching from home.
In a new interview, Spielberg shared that he “disagree(s) with the decision made by the executive committee.”
“I feel very strongly that this is perhaps the most collaborative medium in the world. All of us make movies together, we become a family where one craft is just as indispensable as the next,” continued Spielberg, who is up for Best Director for West Side Story. “I feel that at the Academy Awards there is no above the line, there is no below the line. All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can.”
Like Spielberg, many industry folks are condemning the Academy’s decision, as it minimizes the hard work and commitment put forth by crews behind the scenes of film and television.
“We all come together to make magic, and I am sad that we will all not be on live television watching magic happen together,” Spielberg said. “Everybody will have their moment in the limelight. All the winners will be able to be shown with their acceptance speeches, but it’s the idea that we can’t all be there.”
The 94th Annual Academy Awards is set to air on Sunday, March 27, live from the Dolby Theatre on ABC.
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