Axed from tonight’s live Oscars ceremony then reprieved after much uproar, this year’s short film awards can be played out in your living room right now
Amid a succession of PR disasters – such as nominating Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody for a slew of awards after sexual abuse allegations, which he categorically denies, were made against the director; or hiring as host the comedian Kevin Hart, who then stepped down after an outcry over his perceived homophobic comments and tweets – the Oscars have done something to displease just about every film fan this year. But none prompted as loud an industry backlash as their proposal to cut a handful of lower-profile awards from the live broadcast, presenting them in ad breaks. Among those slated for the chop: best live action short.
Industry titans from Martin Scorsese to Spike Lee voiced their displeasure with the idea, and the Academy sheepishly reversed course: all 24 Oscar categories, including the live action, animated and documentary short prizes, will survive on the broadcast another year. It would have been a shame to lose them: for most casual viewers, those few minutes at the Oscars are probably the most they’ll hear about short cinema all year. (Not to mention the fact that they reliably offer far higher odds of seeing female film-makers rewarded on stage than the feature categories.) Short film awards may be comparatively unglamorous, but they encourage public interest in a form that otherwise gets little exposure or distribution in cinemas. Now that ShortsTV makes all the nominees available to view online through Amazon Video, these awards no longer feel so obscure. You may not have gone out to see every film up for best picture, but in one or two streaming sessions, you can be up to speed with all three short fields.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GJLtWU
Comments
Post a Comment