Oscars Hit With Act of Protest From Former Winner After Its Decision to Cut Eight Categories From Live Show
OSCARGATE?
Tom Fleischman, who has been nominated five times before winning an Oscar for ‘Hugo’, has quit after the Oscars nixed eight categories from the live broadcast.
An Oscar winner has resigned from the Motion Picture Academy in an act of protest over its contentious decision to chop eight categories from the live broadcast of the Oscars later this month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sound engineer and re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, who was nominated five times before winning the coveted statue in 2011 for Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, quit a little more than a week after the Academy’s plan for the 93rd Oscars program was unveiled. In a move that has been largely ridiculed from both inside and outside Hollywood, awards for the sound, film editing, documentary short, original score, makeup/hairstyling, production design, animated short, live-action short categories will be handed out an hour before the live telecast begins, with the ceremonies being spliced into the live show. The Academy’s decision reportedly stemmed from ABC’s push for the three-hour broadcast to be more entertaining.