Cinematography award was one of last year's Oscar highlights -- this year, it'll be sidelined to ad break

UPROXX

"There’s something inheritably insulting and cruel about the whole 'commercials' part," Mike Ryan says of moving four Oscar categories to commercial breaks. "It would probably have been more respectful to just ship these four categories off to another show altogether as opposed to saying, 'While the folks at home are learning about Hamburger Helper, that’s when you can give your speech.'" As Ryan points out, one of the categories sidelined to commercials, cinematography, is very important to movies. He says without Bradley Cooper's cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, A Star is Born would likely not have been nominated for so many Oscars. Cooper isn't nominated for best director, but Libatique is. Ryan points to last year, when Roger Deakins finally won the Oscar for best cinematography in his 14th time being nominated. "In 2018, Deakins finally won for his work on Blade Runner 2049," says Ryan. "It was a great Oscar moment and a culmination of a lifetime of great work finally being rewarded. And we all got to see it happen live. When Sandra Bullock read off Deakins’ name, the crowd gave Deakins a standing ovation. Now, if this had all happened this year instead, this whole fantastic scene would happen while we are watching an A1 Steak Sauce commercial. It’s all very stupid."

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