Academy President Clarifies Decision to Not Air Cinematography and Editing Awards

In an endless debacle that will seemingly never reach an appropriate conclusion, the choice to remove the Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Hair & Makeup, and Best Live Action - Short award presentations from the upcoming Academy Awards telecast has gotten even more mindboggling.

Academy president John Bailey, himself a cinematographer, has now released a statement attempting to clarify the controversial decision, although his stated reasons are both confusing and strangely thought out. 

In a statement released to members of the Academy earlier this week, Bailey acknowledged the anger running rampant since the decision was made (and announced) this past Monday evening. But is his point of attack, aimed primarily at the internet's vast echo chamber, appropriately warranted?

Bailey wrote:

"As the Academy’s officers, we’d like to assure you that no award category at the 91st Oscars ceremony will be presented in a manner that depicts the achievements of its nominees and winners as less than any others. Unfortunately, as the result of inaccurate reporting and social media posts, there has been a chain of misinformation that has understandably upset many Academy members. We’d like to restate and explain the plans for presenting the awards, as endorsed by the Academy’s Board of Governors."

These presentations will go on as follows:

• All 24 Award categories are presented on stage in the Dolby Theatre, and included in the broadcast.
• Four categories – Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Live Action Short – were volunteered by their branches to have their nominees and winners announced by presenters, and included later in the broadcast. Time spent walking to the stage and off, will be edited out.
• The four winning speeches will be included in the broadcast.
• In future years, four to six different categories may be selected for rotation, in collaboration with the show producers. This year’s categories will be exempted in 2020.
• This change in the show was discussed and agreed to by the Board of Governors in August, with the full support of the branch executive committees. Such decisions are fully deliberated.

As this makes clear, the four awards will be given out off-air but broadcast later on in the show. We'll see the speeches and, subsequently, be alerted of the winners by mere appearance, later in the evening, but the hopes of seeing that occur live on the telecast have now been squandered.

The only way to view the entire ceremony as it occurs is via Oscar.com's livestream. 

Did this clarification by Bailey actually provide any...clarity? Let us know in the comments below.