> > I assumed they did that to save the time it takes for all the contestants to realize they won and make their way to the stage. They were probably desperate not to run over time. I thought it looked silly, but it's better than having the show drag till 2 AM.
>
> That was the exactly the reason they did it -- Gil Cates explicitly told this to the press. That doesn't make it any less stupid. Yes, this was one of the shortest Oscar broadcasts in recent history, but how much of that was due to the lack of montages and Best Picture presentations, and how much was due to people in about 15 categories not walking up on the stage? Ten seconds per category -- OH LOOK, A VALUABLE NOT QUITE THREE MINUTES SAVED!!! The expense, of course, being the technical people being treated as third class citizens when they work just as hard and have as much to do with the outcome of a film as the stars do. To hell with the Academy if I ever won an Oscar, and I never got to actually step up to the stage to accept it.
>

To be honest, I'm not really an award show guy, and I didn't watch long enough to see a single award presented in the audience.

Anyone worthy of an Oscar should have the chance to stand up on stage, do their little fist-pump with Oscar in their hand, and thank some people. Particularly the "technical" people who do all the real work. You're absolutely right.

The problem, I think, is that nobody cares what the technical award winners have to say. They're not the stars of the movies, and (almost) nobody has ever seen or heard of them before. So in the middle of an Oscar telecast that everyone watches to see Halle Berry, Chris Rock, or at least Jude Law, there's this unknown non-famous guy thanking is even more unknown and non-famous mother. The viewing audience just wants a big cane to yank them off stage and put the "beautiful people" back on.

This is just the Academy's way of saying they "done good", but stardom is reserved for the highly visible and marketable actors, and the equally visible and marketable directors who used to be actors. Almost, but not quite, as distasteful as awarding them backstage before the show.

As an aside, I'm not a huge fan of watching people make their way to the stage. If they have to cut that out in order to show some clips from the nominees, I'm all for that. Since they cut both, well... I give up. But while everyone's up on stage anyway, they should give out an Oscar for "most congenial supporting actress".

^v^:)^v^
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