Interest in the Oscars ceremony (and the awards themselves) has diminished in recent years, and the Academy is doing everything possible to drive up interest in the March 27 telecast.
Their latest effort is to make the broadcast a little more streamlined; according to Variety, eight awards are going to be presented off-air and later edited into the show. While it's always been the case for twenty-three categories to be recognised, the often long-winded ceremony has come under fire in recent years and been blamed for why ratings have dropped on a year-by-year basis.
However, the news that "Documentary Short," "Film Editing," "Makeup And Hairstyling," "Original Score," "Production Design," "Animated Short," "Live Action Short," and "Sound" will not be aired live has been met with a great deal of backlash on social media. After all, these are all extremely important aspects of filmmaking, particularly when it comes to editing and a movie's score.
The plan is for the Oscars to begin an hour before the show starts on television, with parts of the speeches then added to the live broadcast. Technical awards are often handled this way in other ceremonies, but given the prestige that surrounds the Oscars, the decision has not been a popular one.
This isn't the Academy's first attempt at driving up ratings; they've also given movie fans the chance to pick their favourite nominee by voting on Twitter. The winner won't receive an actual Oscar, though, so it all seems a little pointless (and Spider-Man: No Way Home isn't the current frontrunner).
As noted, this year's Academy Awards take place on March 27.