Emotions, tears, the winner saying they haven’t prepared anything and are so shocked and then rattling off a flawless speech – the Oscars speeches, even the orchestra drowning them out doesn’t stop the gushing.

Well this year that is set to change, the 45-second allotted time now featuring a tickertape style list of names put forward by nominees so there’s no need to run through them verbally. This from the Guardian:

At the annual Oscar nominees lunch, the producers of the Academy awards telecast announced that nominees will be asked to submit their full list of “thank you” recipients in advance of the ceremony for the first time this year. The move is designed to allow producers to scroll names beneath the screen so that Oscar winners can use their allotted 45 second speeches for other purposes, and is designed to avoid prize recipients being unceremoniously “played off” by the orchestra at inopportune moments…

Battling the orchestra has become one of Oscar night’s regular traditions, with winners’ desperate attempts to reach the end of their speech before reaching the cut-off point a source of increasing tension. Status helps, as one of the better known defeaters of “the man with the stick” established: Julia Roberts, having won the best actress award in 2001 for Erin Brockovich, effectively silenced the music by telling the conductor: “Sir, you’re doing a great job, but you’re so quick with that stick, so why don’t you sit, because I may never be here again.” She gained over three minutes as a result.

Of course it helps when you’re really famous, it’s not like the winner of best foreign film can wield such power.

Perhaps the most famously awkward cutting off of a speech occurred during last year’s best documentary short award,  Dana Perry being cut off just as she begun to chat about how the suicide of her son had influenced her film-making.

I think there’s only one way to ensure the winners keep their speeches a decent length – have Ricky Gervais waiting to verbally abuse them the moment they go past 45 seconds.

[source:guardian]