The 2022 Academy Awards were dramatic for a number of reasons, but the leadership for the 2023 installment have promised to rectify at least one of the ceremony’s most controversial moments.
New CEO Bill Kramer has revealed that the winners of all 23 categories will be announced live during the telecast when the 95th Academy Awards are held on March 12. “I can confirm that all categories will be included in the live telecast,” he told Variety on Tuesday.
Last year’s show gave out eight of the awards—Makeup and Hairstyling, Film Editing, Production Design, Original Score, Documentary Short Subject, Short Film Animated and Live Action, and Sound—in the hour before the live telecast began. Edited versions of the winners’ speeches were then included in the main show.
This decision was met with severe criticism from many members of the industry, especially members of those branches, because it seemed to indicate a hierarchy of which parts of the filmmaking process were more valued. At the time, the Academy’s awards committee was being pressured to cut about 45 minutes from the show, which has infamously run longer than its planned three-hour run time.
The 94th Academy Awards—which will remain etched in Hollywood history for many other reasons, including the “fan favorite category” and Will Smith’s slap—still ran over the designated time, clocking in at three hours and 40 minutes.
The news of this year’s return to normalcy, confirmed by Vanity Fair, reflects the promises made by Kramer earlier this year to fix some of the issues that plagued last year’s show. “We want to see all disciplines equitably acknowledged on the show—that is our goal,” Kramer told members of the press in August.
Kramer, who took on the post of Academy CEO in July, also emphasized the Academy’s intention to announce producers and a host of this year’s show much earlier than in past years. And they’ve kept to that promise, announcing Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner as the executive producers and showrunners in September, and Jimmy Kimmel as the host (for the third time) in early November.
Still, many details of the 95th Academy Awards have yet to be revealed, but Kramer continues to emphasize that his main goal is “having a show that celebrates the artisans, the arts and sciences, and the collaborative nature of moviemaking,” as he told Variety. After last year’s tumultuous show, we assume that much of the Academy membership is applauding this choice.
Content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.