Director Guillermo del Toro has slammed the changes made to this year's Oscars awards ceremony after the Academy decided to cut eight categories from the live televised broadcast.
The presentation and acceptance of the following awards will take place an hour before the televised ceremony: Best Documentary Short, Best Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Production Design, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, and Best Achievement in Sound.
They'll still be recorded, but will be edited into the live broadcast. This controversial approach was adopted once before, and then promptly abandoned, in 2018 after industry backlash.
"The nominees that we have here, most of the ones we have here tonight, [worked] against many, many difficult odds [to get here], and we don’t do [films] alone," del Toro said while accepting the Hollywood Critics Association’s Filmmaking Achievement Award (via Deadline). "We do them together, and the people that made them with us did it risking everything in a pandemic, showing up, making the day, somewhat in a miracle."
He added: "I must say, if any year was the year to think about it, this is not the year not to hear their names live at the Oscars. This is the year to sing it, and sing it loud. We shouldn’t do it this year; we shouldn’t do it ever, but not this year… And we must say this… 2021 was a fucking great year for movies."
Del Toro's most recent movie, Nightmare Alley, starring Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, and Cate Blanchett, is up for four Oscars this year, including in the Best Production Design category.
Del Toro's next project is the director's re-telling of Pinocchio, a stop-motion movie for Netflix featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton, which is set for release in December. In the meantime, check out our list of the best Netflix movies that you can watch right now.
