Some are angry that VFX Oscar winners were cut off mid-speech

The Oscars are notorious for cutting off winners mid-speech once they go past 45 seconds. The 45-second rule was imposed in 2001, in an attempt to shorten the length of the show.

But on Sunday, some are angry that the team behind the VFX for James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ was cut-off during their acceptance speech, which also wasn’t the first time a VFX team was interrupted during their speech.

2013 Best Visual Effects winners cut off during protest

In 2013, the team behind ‘Life of Pi’ took to the Oscars stage to receive the Best Visual Effects award. Supervisor Bill Westenhofer, led the winning team at the now-closed Rhythm & Hues studio, which, at the time, had just laid off 250 workers without pay after filing for bankruptcy.

Westenhofer’s speech was cut off as it hit the 45-second mark, but rather than play the usual cut-off music, the show’s producers opted to play the theme of Jaws instead, right at the moment Westenhofer mentioned the studio name.

This act, which many saw as rude, also angered many visual effects workers.  At the time, almost 500 visual effects workers from Rhythm and Hues were protesting outside the Dolby Theater as the stars walked on the red carpet, calling out the injustices of laying off its employees and calling for unionization.

Backstage at the event, Westenhofer continued his speech, underlining the problem with visual effects in Hollywood.

“What I was trying to say up there is that at a time when visual effects movies are dominating the box office, visual effects companies are struggling,” he explained.

“And I wanted to point out that we aren’t technicians. Visual effects is not just a commodity that’s being done by people pushing buttons. We’re artists, and if we don’t find a way to fix the business model, we start to lose the artistry. If anything, ‘Life of Pi’ shows that we’re artists and not just technicians.”

The Oscars presentation of some categories still leaves room for improvement

Critics of the Academy Awards have pointed out the condescending manner that some categories are treated, but there have been some improvements. This year, the craft categories editing, makeup and hairstyling, production design, score, sound, animated short, documentary short, and live action short were actually awarded live.

At this year’s show, Richard Baneham, along with Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett of Wētā FX accepted the award for Best Visual Effects for their work on ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’. Just as they were about to thank their families, they were abruptly interrupted by the cut-off music, with the camera immediately panning away. Host Jimmy Kimmel then made a joke, seemingly prepared for the cut-off:

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I happen to know before he was cut off, the ‘Avatar’ visual effects team asked me to announce that if anyone’s interested, the visual effects after-party is at CGI Fridays.”

“Must we continue with the cutting off of the VFX winner’s acceptance speech?” a member of the Academy’s Visual Effects branch asked.

“I guess we should be happy that they didn’t use the theme to Jaws as the hook.”

At the 2022 Oscars, the Best Visual Effects team from DNEG, who won for their work in ‘Dune’, was cut off just as special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer was about to give his thanks.