Rob Mills of Walt Disney Television, who is also in charge of the Academy Awards telecast, recently addressed the backlash surrounding the shortened acceptance speech of K-pop Demon Hunters‘ songwriters. He assured that they are working to find a solution for handling speeches while speaking about the challenges the broadcast faces when multiple people want to take the stage at the same time. While he acknowledges that it’s not good to cut someone off during such a significant moment, they are looking at what they can do to avoid such mistakes.
Oscar producer addresses K-pop Demon Hunters speech backlash
In a conversation with Variety, Mills opened up about the backlash the Academy Awards received for cutting short the K-pop Demon Hunters songwriters’ speech. The popular film won two Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“Golden”). It marked a historic moment for the songwriting team, as it became the first K-pop song to win at the Oscars.
Ejae shared a few words before stepping aside to allow other members to speak. However, the speech was cut off as the orchestra began playing, and the event went on a commercial break. As the moment was significant for the award recipients, many criticized the Academy for cutting their speeches short.
Mills recently shared that they’re looking at what they could do best in handling speeches from multiple members at the same time. He said, “One thing, as we post mortem for next year, will be to look at how we’re handling speeches. You win the Oscar, you know you go on stage, it could be one person, it could be five or six. Immediately you’ll see the sort of allotted time we have for them. Do we need to look at it and say, okay, designate one person to speak. Maybe you continue it backstage, and we have a feed on social or something like that.”
He revealed that they’re trying to look at everything and figure out a solution. He acknowledged that cutting someone off from their big moment isn’t ideal. “We talk about it at the award luncheon, that you have this designated time to speak, and it’s difficult. I don’t know what the most elegant solution is, but it’s obviously something we should look really, really long and hard at,” he elaborated.
