During its show each year, the Academy Awards always runs a montage of actors, directors, producers and other contributors to film that have died in the past year. The “in-memoriam” sequence is a staple of the Oscars and can often be a bit of a tearjerker.
At For The Win, we try to do some of these tributes on our own, like remembering Lance Reddick’s work in The Wire, or the iconic moments of Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
But sometimes – oftentimes, unfortunately – the Oscars forgets to include some folks. Last year, they forgot about Paul Sorvino.
This year, the Academy sprinted through the montage fairly quickly and never brought it to full screen. At the end, several names flashed on the screen, but they were difficult to read because they were small and far away.
And so, a lot of folks online thought that many actors and contributors to film were snubbed, overlooked or forgotten. There was a significant outcry for Reddick.
no mention of lance reddick in memoriam, damn.
we miss you dude. pic.twitter.com/NeXCPLD5fT
— Stephen Ford (@StephenSeanFord) March 11, 2024
Reddick and other big-name contributors to film – Ahsoka’s Ray Stevenson and singer Sinead O’Connor among them – were technically included in the montage, but only very briefly at the end, shoved into a long list of names that hardly anyone could read.
Oscars In Memoriam was such a mess… how do you disrespect all these people at the end by just having a wall of names that barely stays up for 10 seconds?
RIP Lance Reddick, Ray Stevenson, Treat Williams, and everyone else on this wall of names that deserved better pic.twitter.com/w5TY6SVxcl— 💢Eji💢 (@ArtsyNeurotic) March 11, 2024
Simply put, the late folks like Reddick, Stevenson, O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Burt Young, Treat Williams and others deserved so much better than this. If we could make time for the song from the movie about Flaming Hot Cheetos, couldn’t we find time to honor these people properly?
If the #Oscars aren’t going to include Burt Young in the In Memoriam, I will.
RIP Paulie. pic.twitter.com/hAZGFecb5d
— Kyle Tims (@KyleTims) March 11, 2024
