Sound Editors Planning Silent Protest at Oscars Over Live Telecast Cuts

variety.com:

sound branch also revealed that guild members are planning on wearing their guild badges upside down as a form of silent protest over the demotion of crafts at the Oscars.

The source disclosed that there are discussions exploring the idea of potentially turning their Oscar statues upside down upon receipt at the show, as a way of protesting the Academy’s decision.More than 80 people, including 16 Academy Award winners, signed the letter to the Academy, which is posted in full below.“As a community of sound artists, we respectfully disagree and are opposed to the changes that are being made for the broadcast of the 94th Oscars ceremony,” says the group’s letter to Academy President David Rubin and ABC. “Every film is greater than the sum of all the parts and it only gets made by the joint effort and contribution of all the people involved in creating movies,” the letter continues. “We all make films together and we need to focus on what we contribute in common, not what divides us.”The letter is the artisan community’s latest response decrying the decision to pre-record eight craft categories and show edited excerpts during the live ceremony.

Producer Will Packer has said, “I think it was the right decision. We have to understand that the Academy Awards show as we know it is at an inflection point.