Of Course, Fans Had A Lot Of Thoughts About The Oscars Barely Paying Tribute To Lance Reddick, Treat Williams And Others

The Oscars are always controversial, and the 2024 Academy Awards were no exception. No matter how deserving the winners are, some will think the wrong movie won. Some think Lily Gladstone should have won the Best Actress award. Shamiek Moore admits he’s a “sore loser” over Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse losing in the Best Animated Feature category. However, the In Memorium segment is one part of the annual telecast that is regularly seen as a failure. The Oscars routinely leaves out popular stars for no apparent reason. 

The Academy’s yearly attempt to pay tribute to those that we lost is often seen as a flop as certain people tend to be either not given their due if they’re not overlooked completely. This year the Academy appears to have tried to make sure nobody was forgotten. But the way it did that is seen as insulting by some on Twitter as it left many feeling some, like Lance Reddick and Treat Williams, weren’t mentioned at all.

There were three different ways that people were honored at this year’s awards. The first two methods are common, with some receiving short clips where we got to hear their voice while others got a static image with their name. The third method came at the end, where a wall of text appeared simply listing out the names of dozens of people.

While the attempt was clearly to make sure nobody was forgotten, it didn’t work. The massive list of names was difficult to read for the TV audience, if not those in the theaters, and it wasn’t on screen very long, which meant that even though somebody like Lance Reddick, who passed away just about a year ago, technically was included in the segment, some on Twitter thought he’d been left out because they missed his name.

The same was true of Treat Williams. The Chicago Fire actor died in a motorcycle accident last June. He was, "technically,” included in the segment but some of his fans, who were probably looking for his name never saw it, leading to them believing he’d been omitted entirely.  

It’s far from clear how decisions were made regarding how each person’s position in the In Memorium segment was decided. While many of the names we see each year are household names, actors, writers, and directors we know, many others are not names we recognize, though they may have still been major contributors to the industry. But for the segment to not go on too long, many like Ray Stevenson, who died last May, get relegated to the back page, leaving some on Twitter to ask why. 

While the idea behind the massive list may have been good, trying not to leave anybody out, it did not have its desired impact. People thought that many major names had been ignored. While it may not be possible to please everybody, it would seem likely that next year’s In Memorium segment might try something new.