Frustration in some quarters from the plan of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present Oscars into eight predominantly artisanal categories before ABC airs Sunday and then weaving the edited versions of these winners into a live show could lead to acts of protest hitting the podium at the Dolby Theatre.
Acoustic Film Association President Carol Urban confirmed Thursday that a plan is in the works for attendees to wear their union badges upside down during Sunday’s gala, and for winners to flip their Oscars when accepted.
“There are many different organizations that are working together to find ways to circumvent their voices being cut,” said Urban, who leads the group that represents sound mixing machines. “With the Oscars approaching, more and more craftspeople are showing their solidarity. If there is anything positive resulting from this very terrible situation this year, it is that we are getting more and more solid as the day approaches.”
Sources told Deadline that ambiguity in a business plan began with some members of the audio community, one of the categories affected by pretreatment, a list that also includes editing, makeup, hairstyling, original score, production design, documentary shorts, animated shorts and a Live Action Short.
The notion we’re hearing about “spread” is that candidates in one or more of these categories will wear their academy or guild lapel pins upside down in protest of what many say is slight by not celebrating directly during the ABC television broadcast. In some cases, winners may raise their Oscar statuettes upside down when they kiss them on stage.
“It’s just word of mouth,” a source told Deadline Today of the protest plans. “People are talking about wearing their lapel pins at the Academy upside down, and having their Oscar statues upside down if they win one. Some will definitely go there, some will not. It is spreading. She gets some coins.”
Sources say the idea is spreading to other abandoned crafts. Most of them are represented by unions, which means that a show of solidarity is certainly possible.
Earlier this week, the American Academy of Sciences urged the academic “to use these remaining days before the 94th Awards Ceremony to choose a bold and courageous path to inclusivity by respecting and directly presenting all classes.” The Voice of the Motion Picture Association joined the petition, saying that by pursuing a prior dressage scheme “these classes are marked as ‘second-class’ skills of somewhat less importance.”
“We all had confidence that the Academy would celebrate all the filmmakers,” Urban told Deadline Thursday. When asked why the pre-recorded category plan would be bad if the winners were to still be shown on telecast, she replied, “Because what we’re going to say will be moderated, brief, and limited and we all know, as is another of the affected categories, ‘best editing’, how much editing will affect The story. Reduces category votes. Plus, I find it annoying not to live in front of a full audience of peers. We can’t hear the applause of support from the entire community of equally filmmakers. This is so heartbreaking.”
The audio community began seeing their Oscar categories move from two to one early last year, when the Academy combined Sound Mixing and Sound Editing into the Comprehensive Audio category. metal sound He won the Voice Oscar last year.
This year’s Voice Nominees include teams from BElfast, dunes, no time to die, dog power And the West side story.
Academy and Oscar producer Will Packer has defended the current plan for the eight categories to be rolled out earlier, saying it’s part of a push to speed up the show and increase ratings, which has been faltering over the past few years. But since the plan was first revealed in late February, it has been opposed by several prominent figures, including Academy Board Member Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and several union leaders including American Film Editors and from IATSE President Matt. Loeb, who described the move as “harmful”.
At least two members of the Academy — four-time Academy Award nominee and Queen Brothers collaborator Peter Kurland and frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator Tom Fleischman — have resigned from the group over the plan.
The 94th Annual Academy Awards kicks off this Sunday from coast to coast at 8 PM EST / 5 PM PT.