Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot: ‘Roma’ Just an “Expensive Home Movie”

A male member of the Academy's 519-person directors branch, granted a cloak of anonymity, reveals why he filled out his final Oscar ballot the way that he did. "I'm not going to watch the Oscars this year," he volunteers, saying the idea of a hostless ceremony has turned him off. "I'm just anticipating a very boring show. One of the best things about the show is the opening monologue, which is usually pretty good — it's what happens after that that's not great."

As for the Academy's plan to hand out four awards during commercial breaks (which it rescinded after outcry): "It's an abomination," he says. "If ABC, which I'm sure was pushing for this, thought that dumping cinematography and film editing was going to bring back any of the viewers the show has lost in recent years, they're idiotic. Cinematography and editing are so important. For fuck's sake, man, a movie director [Roma's Alfonso Cuarón] is going to win the cinematography award this year for the first time ever, and we weren't going to see it live? I don't fucking get it."