Oscar Protest Rumblings Grow, Could Turn Ceremony Upside Down

deadline.com:

Frustrations in some quarters over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ plan to present Oscars to eight crafts categories before Sunday’s ABC telecast and then weave edited versions of those winners into the live show may lead to acts of protest that go up all the way to the podium at the Dolby Theatre.Cinema Audio Society president Karol Urban confirmed Thursday that a plan was in the works for attendees to wear their guild badges upside down during Sunday’s ceremony, and for winners to flip their Oscars when they accept them.“There is a multitude of different organizations that are working together to find ways to circumvent having their voices clipped,” Urban said. “As the Oscars get closer, more and more craft people are showing solidarity.

If there’s anything positive that comes out of this very terrible situation this year, it’s that we are becoming more solidified as the day comes closer.”Sources told Deadline that murmurings of an action plan began with some members of the Sound community, one of the eight impacted categories due the preshow treatment, a list that also includes Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Production Design and Documentary Short, Animated Short and Live Action Short.The idea that we hear is “spreading” is that nominees in one or more of those categories would wear their Academy or guild lapel pins upside down in protest of what many say is a slight by not being celebrated live during the ABC telecast.

In some instances, winners might hold their Oscar statuettes upside down when they accept them onstage.“It’s not an organized thing.

It’s word of mouth,” a source told Deadline today about the protest plans. “People are talking about wearing their Academy lapel pins