The Oscars' Play-Off Music Was Especially Vicious This Year
A number of winners at the Oscars barely got a word in as music played them off stage during Sunday’s ceremony — and it didn’t go without notice.
The Academy Awardsplaying off winners is not a new concept. The show’s executive producers and showrunners, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, recently told CNN that any “heartfelt, well-meaning speech” wouldn’t get hit with a load of sound.
“If you start reading off your grocery list of what you need to do tomorrow, probably the music’s gonna come in,” said Kirshner.
But winners’ speeches about family were noticeably cut short while others barely got their speeches off the ground.
Judy Chin, co-winner of the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for her part in “The Whale,” got cleared offstage by music, with one user noting that fellow co-winner Annemarie Bradley should’ve received some airtime as well.
'The Whale' wins Best Makeup & Hairstyling #Oscars#Oscars95pic.twitter.com/I0RSdBJ9X9
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 13, 2023
BOOOOOO for cutting off Judy Chin, co-winner for Best Makeup & Hairstyling. #Oscars
— Phil Yu (@angryasianman) March 13, 2023
Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley deserved time to speak
— Reel and Roll Films - 🙏 Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar 🙏 (@reelandroll) March 13, 2023
Later, some viewers noticed a trend in who the Oscars were playing off after two Indian filmmakers, Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Mongadouble, got their onstage time cut short during Mongadouble’s Best Documentary Short Film acceptance speech for their film “The Elephant Whisperers.”
The next winners, Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud, noticeably did not get the play-off treatment for their speeches accepting Best Animated Short Film for “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and The Horse.”
Hoo buddy, if you're gonna play people off the stage, you want to do it with at least a *little* bit of consistency. #Oscars2023
— Stephen Thompson (@idislikestephen) March 13, 2023
LOVED Gaga. But Fuck @TheAcademy. They play off the two women hair and makeup winners and the Indian woman producer of the best Short Doc, but let both white guys who won for animated short say their full pieces. Shameful and stupid.
— Jonathan Penner (@SurvivorPenner) March 13, 2023
Host Jimmy Kimmel later made light of winners seconds after members of the “Avatar: The Way of Water” visual effects team were played off stage during co-winner Eric Saindon’s speech about family.
Kimmel, who spoke from the audience, joked that there’d be an after-party at “CGI Fridays.”
Viewers on Twitter, however, weren’t laughing at his quip.
That rapid playoff of the Avatar VFX team and then Kimmel’s bit about that felt tacky
— Will Mavity (@mavericksmovies) March 13, 2023
VFX artists are underappreciated enough as it is, you’re really gonna play them off as they’re talking about the work and thanking their families
— Sydney🚀 (@CountVolpe) March 13, 2023
You’re really going to play off visual effects supervisors who won for arguably the most popular nominee and immediately make a joke deriding visual effects artists for being underpaid?… Gross #Oscars
— David Weiser (@weiser_david) March 13, 2023
I cannot stand when they play the people off. Let them fucking talk! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that they earned. It’s so wrong #Oscar
— Joey Sasso (@joey_sasso) March 13, 2023