Oscar Nominees React to Live Telecast Cutting Craft Honors: ‘These Categories Are Vital’ (Variety Artisans Special Report)
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThe hardest blow is the feeling that their work doesn’t matter as much as other filmmaking disciplines.
That was the sentiment shared by a panel of veteran artisans who represent the craft categories that will no longer be presented live at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on March 27.“What offends me is that somebody in the Academy would claim to or imply that they know which crafts are more important and more deserving of respect than time than other crafts,” Randy Thom, a two-time Oscar winner for sound.
Thom was among the participants in the “Variety Artisans: Special Report” virtual panel, moderated by Jazz Tangcay, Variety‘s Senior Artisans Editor, to examine the fallout from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to reformat the Oscars ceremony this year.
Like the other panelists, Thom is no stranger to the Academy Awards. He’s been nominated 15 times and won for 1983’s “The Right Stuff” and 2004’s “The Incredibles.” Thom was joined by editor Myron Kerstein, nominated this year for “Tick, Tick … Boom!”; hair department head Mia Neal, an Oscar winner for 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; editor and composer John Ottman, who won for editing for 2019’s “Bohemian Rhapsody’; and director Ben Proudfoot, nominated for documentary short subject for “The Queen of Basketball.”On Feb.
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