(15 Feb 2019) NOMINEES DISCUSS OSCARS' NEW 90-SECOND ACCEPTANCE GUIDELINE
The producers of this year's Academy Award telecast have two words for nominees: Get moving.
In the past, winners - regardless of travel time to the stage - would get 45 seconds for speeches before the orchestra began playing them off.  Now, it's a total of 90 seconds, from announcement of win to those dreaded first musical notes.
It's one of a number of changes the producers are making to fulfill an Academy mandate to keep the telecast leaner than in recent years.
"I think when you're dealing with 90 seconds and you're probably in the back of the arena, I think that this might be a foot sprint," said Steven Morrow, Oscar-nominated sound mixer for "A Star is Born."
Should "Free Solo" win as best documentary feature, co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and the film's subject, mountain climber Alex Honnold, have a plan.
Chai Vasarhelyi: "OK, so, Alex, you're going to put me over your shoulder and get me there in 15 seconds?"
Honnold: "(Like a) fireman, I'm going to throw her over and jog her to the stage and ensure you have 45 seconds to speak."
Brad Bird, a two-time Oscar winner (for animated features "Incredibles" and "Ratatouille"), nominated this year for "Incredibles 2," said, no matter how much or how little time he may get on stage, he's anticipating an acceptance-speech train wreck.
"There's a giant monitor right in your line of sight," Bird explained. "It's directly in your line of sight and you're trying not to look anywhere and you're trying to remember your thing, because it's nerve racking. And then it, immediately, the second you land up there, it starts flashing, 'Wrap it up.' I mean, you land on the stage and you look and this thing is there that says, 'Wrap it up.' And then it starts flashing and you're just trying to like remember what you're saying -- and then somebody stands up in front of it."
Barry Jenkins, nominated for his adapted screenplay for "If Beale Street Could Talk," is more more optimistic.
"You know, it's funny, when Tarell (Alvin McCraney) and I won for adapted screenplay (for "Moonlight"), I feel like we did a damned good job," Jenkins said. "We got two speeches in in the span of that 30 seconds. The biggest thing is to do is to get to the stage, just get to the stage. So, I think I'll do just fine with it if my name is called."
The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 24 February.
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