As a filmmaker and lover of cinema, I am a huge fan of the Oscars. It feels great to watch films I love get the recognition they deserve every year. However, this year I am not watching the 94th Academy Awards despite all 10 nominees for best picture being amazing films. I sincerely wish all the nominees luck, but I am refusing to watch because of several changes to the ceremony by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

It’s no secret that the Oscars have not been doing well ratings-wise. The awards ceremony consistently had around 40 million viewers through the years with 41.62 million viewers in 2010, according to Statista. But the past couple of years has not been kind with only 9.85 million viewers watching the 2021 ceremony.

But instead of wondering what about the ceremony isn’t attracting people, the Academy has decided to needlessly pander to get back viewers. In February, the Academy announced that it would be recognizing an Oscars Fan-Favorite Film where people could vote for their favorite film of 2021 on Twitter as well as an Oscars Cheer moment for the best moment in a film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

This feels like the Academy’s answer to people angry that films like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” or “Army of the Dead” weren’t nominated for Best Picture. While I loved “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and regarded it as one of my favorite films of 2021, the nominations are supposed to be final. This feels like a way for the Academy to say that they recognize popular genres without actually doing so. 

I can tolerate the Fan Favorite and Oscars Cheer moments during the ceremony, especially compared to the Academy’s Feb. 22 decision to remove eight awards from the live broadcast. Instead of being awarded live, the winners of Best Film Editing, Best Documentary Short, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short and Best Sound will be awarded one hour before the ceremony with footage being mixed into the live broadcast, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

This decision is just plain insulting. The Academy said that this decision was to shorten the ceremony but it comes off as if the recipients of these awards don’t matter enough to get live attention. While I know the Oscars for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Picture are more popular, every category matters. 

There’s a reason why we don’t go to the cinema to see silent films. It’s because of sound. Without production design and makeup, the film’s aesthetic is non-existent. Editing and scores give films energy. 

As for short films, the Oscars are a great way for them to be recognized. With the exception of some short animated films, which appear before Disney and Pixar films, short films don’t get wide theatrical releases. As someone who is studying filmmaking and working on ideas for short films, if I was nominated for an Oscar and told that, even if I won, I wouldn’t get my award live, I would be furious. 

Fortunately, these decisions have been met with backlash from the public with #presentall23 dotting the Academy’s social media posts as well as notable filmmakers. Steven Spielberg has recently expressed his displeasure in an interview with Deadline Hollywood.

“I feel that at the Academy Awards, there is no above the line, there is no below the line,” Spielberg said. “All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together live at 5.”

But what does Steven Spielberg know? He’s only directed “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Color Purple,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Minority Report,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Terminal,” “Munich,” “Lincoln,” “Bridge of Spies,” “The Post” and “West Side Story.” He’s also a three-time Oscar winner and the highest-grossing filmmaker of all time. 

If the Academy really wants to improve the show, they need to understand why people aren’t watching. People don’t watch the Oscars anymore because there’s not a sense of fun with the show. The best ceremonies had amazing hosts that were charismatic and great performers. When I think of great hosts, I think of talented actors and comedians who did it all: sang, danced and made us laugh. Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, Hugh Jackman, Steve Martin and Neil Patrick Harris are some of the best to host the Academy Awards.

If you really want people to be interested in the Oscars, give every category the attention they deserve. Give the people watching a fun spectacle. Celebrate the love of cinema that we all feel. If you make the Oscars a fun thing to watch, it won’t matter if people have seen all the Best Picture nominees or none of them. Make the Oscars worth watching.