The Oscars have been full of controversial ideas this season, and they have finally clarified one of them: the four categories they’ll be shunting over to the commercial breaks are Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Live Action Short. There has already been significant backlash against the decision (our own Jack Mathews addressed the announcement here). Now Oscar winner Russell Crowe has spoken out. He tweeted his disapproval on February 12. Scroll down to read his comments.
Crowe is a three-time Best Actor nominee for “The Insider” (1999), “Gladiator” (2000) and “A Beautiful Mind” (2001). He won for “Gladiator,” which also claimed Best Picture and was nominated for its cinematography and film editing. “The Insider” was nominated in those categories as well, while “A Beautiful Mind” contended for editing and makeup. So his career has certainly benefited from artists and craftsmen in these fields. Now the actor calls the Oscars’ decision to shift these awards “fundamentally stupid.”
This isn’t the first controversy to rise up around the academy’s decisions for this year’s awards. Last fall they proposed a category for Best Popular Film, but they scrapped that idea after widespread criticism. They also planned to only feature performances of two of the nominated songs: “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” and “All the Stars” from “Black Panther” — not coincidentally the biggest hits in the category. But they reversed that decision too after backlash. And it was reported that the Oscars were planning to snub last year’s winning actors from presenting this year as they hunted down bigger stars to hand out this year’s acting awards — again, the Oscars reversed course after the news got out.
What do you think of the Oscars’ latest decision? You can see exactly what Russell Crowe thinks about it below.
The Academy is removing cinematography, editing and make up from the televised show?
This is just such a fundamentally stupid decision, I’m not even going to be bothered trying to be a smart arse about it.
It’s just too fucking dumb for words.— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) February 12, 2019
Be sure to check out how our experts rank this year’s Oscar contenders. Then take a look at the most up-to-date combined odds before you make your own Oscar predictions. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until winners are announced on February 24.
