PORTLAND, Maine — You’ve perhaps heard about the latest flap surrounding the Academy Awards.
It was set off when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science decided it would streamline this year’s Oscars broadcast by not bothering to show live in prime time the presentation of awards in eight categories.
Among those categories were such crucial elements of filmmaking as production design, film editing, and original score. Instead, those awards will be presented earlier, and their taped highlights will be inserted into the Oscar telecast.
Granted, the Academy Awards broadcast has for years dragged on interminably.
It’s a bloated, lumbering, self-congratulatory beast that takes three and half hours to plod from start to finish. Still, these cuts have angered movie lovers both in and out of the industry.
Among the annoyed are Mick Pratt and Chris Brown of Bull Moose, who joined 207 for the annual Oscars preview.
This year they focused not on the most ballyhooed categories — best picture, best actor and actress, etc. — but on some of those, you will not see live on March 27.
They’re incredibly passionate about original scores — and with good reason. As Mick and Chris asked, can you imagine “Star Wars” without its iconic music? Or “E.T.”? “Jaws”? Or any of a hundred other classic films? As the saying goes, a movie without music isn’t a movie.
What are the films they think deserve an Academy Award this year? Watch our conversation to find out.