Why Academy’s Decision to Cut Craft Oscars From Telecast Is a Major Step Backward

variety.com:

Claudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefOne of my first big initiatives after joining Variety was to launch a weekly franchise called Artisans, a dedicated feature covering the world of the talented craftspeople who toil behind the scenes on every production made in Hollywood and elsewhere: the editors, production designers, costume and makeup artists, sound engineers and other specialists whose contributions are vital to the fabric of the industry and to breathing life into the movies and television shows we watch on the big and small screens.I felt this was a part of the industry that was woefully under-covered, and therefore by devoting special space to telling their stories and profiling them in our magazine, on our website and in video interviews, we’d be giving these unsung heroes their proper due.

Over the past few years, we’ve greatly expanded our coverage under the leadership of our wiz Artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, who has deep ties throughout the artistic community.

So, you can only imagine how she and I are both feeling about the Motion Picture Academy’s highly contested decision last week to give short shrift to eight Oscar categories during the March 27 ceremony — a decision it is not prepared to reverse.The organization decided that winners in film editing, original score, sound, production design and makeup and hairstyling, along with animated short, documentary short and live-action short, would be disinvited from delivering their acceptance speeches live, as is customary, in hopes of goosing the show’s declining ratings (good luck with that).

Instead these winners would be prerecorded and edited into the program.The controversial move has generated widespread outrage from artisans, who find it degrading and.