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Back to Hollywood Breakdown

Hollywood Breakdown

The Oscar for biggest controversy goes to...

From the highly unpopular popular film category idea to the hosting debacle to the Academy's latest decision to relegate the presentation of four awards to commercial breaks, the Academy has stumbled one time after another en route to this year's…

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KCRW placeholderBy Matthew Belloni • Feb 15, 2019 • 1 min read

In an effort to keep this year's Oscars under 3 hours, the Academy announced that four categories--cinematography, editing, hair and makeup, and live action shorts--would be presented during commercial breaks and the speeches aired later in the telecast. The blowback was swift--especially in regards to the cinematography and editing categories--many directors have spoken out about how essential these skills are to the craft of filmmaking. Thus far though, the Academy is refusing to cave on their decision--no doubt the pressure from ABC to keep the telecast short is intense. In addition to the relegation of these four categories, the show will also be host-less...so tune in to see a potential debacle!

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    Matthew Belloni

    founding partner of Puck News

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    Kim Masters

    partner/writer at Puck News, host of KCRW's “The Business.”

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    Kaitlin Parker

    Producer, 'The Business' and 'Hollywood Breakdown'

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