The Academy that hosts the Oscars is known for pandering to its audience and fans. From letting films win that do not deserve the victory to ignoring brilliant and unpopular works of cinema, the judges are hardly impartial. Is it any real surprise why more people watch the MTV movie awards?

More recently, the Academy announced that to reduce its run-time, it would be moving four categories to commercial breaks: Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short and Makeup and Hairstyling. The claim here was supposedly to attempt a ratings increase.

The information gained immediate outrage from film fans and makers alike, specifically toward the cinematography and editing categories, arguably the two most important aspects of feature-filmmaking. People who spoke out against this included current Oscar nominee Alfonso Cuaron, whose film, “Roma,” is currently up for 10 Oscars, as well as his fellow director and last year’s winner for the award, Guillermo del Toro.

A film is nothing without makeup, cinematography and editing. If there were a stationary camera in a room with the actors moving around the space, it may as well be a play. Part of what makes cinema a separate medium to the stage is the presence of camera direction, placement and operation. Both have talented actors, but what makes a film is the editing and cinematography, which happen to also be two of the most difficult fields to master.

The Live Action Short category may not be too popular, as many viewers of the Oscars have never watched the shorts nominated. It is rather lucky, then, that the awards show is not meant for them. The point of the Oscars is to praise filmmakers for their hard work, not to have people who know nothing about cinema complain that their favorite actor did not win their award.

Certain people spend their entire lives dedicated to the craft of filmmaking. Whether it be a live-action short or a feature-length film, the people highlighted at the Oscars, usually, are the best at what they do. It is a huge honor to even be nominated for one of these awards. To move the category that an expert was nominated for to “reduce runtime” is appalling.

Of course, the Oscars need to somewhat pander to uneducated audiences so they get views. However, moving categories that are the literal basis of films to commercial breaks is disrespectful not only to those nominated, but also to those who are interested in the particular category.

Due to the outrage, the Academy reversed its decision and said that all categories are important and will be aired on Sunday, Feb. 24. While this was clearly a test for fans to see if they cared, it is another example of pandering to its audience. The Academy has, so far, only made decisions based on ratings. It makes sense in the grand scheme of money, but as far as rewarding the films that actually deserve it, the Academy is still unreliable.

Instead of moving the categories that are deemed less popular to the commercial breaks, the Oscars could just as easily educate the viewer on what constitutes cinematography or editing. Then, instead of movie-lovers thinking that all there is to a good film is a well-written script or an A-list actor, they can understand there is a lot of moving parts in filmmaking.

Image from Oscars via YouTube