The 93rd Academy Awards has been all over social media today- for good reasons and for bad. This ceremony received a lot of brownie points for being inclusive and accepting of diversity. However, it made a huge mistake when it comes to actress Marlee Matlin, one of the presenters this year.
Ms Matlin, who is hearing-impaired, signed her speech with American Sign language (ASL) with an interpreter on stage. However, the Oscar telecast cut away from her mid-speech, making the audience really angry.
Marlee Matlin, now 55, is the only hearing-impaired performer to have won an acting Academy Award - for the 1986 film Children Of A Lesser God - at the age of 21, the youngest ever winner in the category.
Her presence at the Oscars this year was also special and symbolic as one of the nominees was the Riz Ahmed film Sound Of Metal, the story of a drummer losing his hearing.
However, cutting her speech mid-way made the audience forget all the happy news and earned the Academy some negative feedback for being "rude."
TV critic wrote Caroline Darya Framke wrote on Twitter, "oh my god, don't cut AWAY from Marlee Matlin signing her introduction! at least have her in an in-screen box so people can SEE HER SIGNING."
Another Twitter user wrote, "Doesn’t make sense at all that, while Marlee Matlin presents an award in #ASL, they cut away from her entirely while she's speaking! Totally missing the point, #Oscars."
Here are some of the other reactions that Oscars received for mishandling the telecast of Marlee Matlin. Have a look.
