John Bailey, a cinematographer who led the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences through the preliminary #MeToo reckoning, died Friday at 81.
Bailey died “peacefully in his sleep” in Los Angeles, his spouse, Carol Littleton, mentioned in an announcement distributed by the movie academy.
Bailey – who labored on movies starting from “Strange Individuals” to “Groundhog Day” to “How you can Lose a Man in 10 Days” – was the primary cinematographer to preside over the Academy, serving two phrases that spanned 2017-2019.
These had been tumultuous years for the movie {industry}. When Bailey took over, the Oscars alone had been grappling with falling scores, controversies over the homogeneity of its selections (#OscarsSoWhite) and the notorious envelope flub in 2017 that marred the very best image win for “Moonlight.” Scarcely two months into his presidency, The New York Occasions and The New Yorker launched bombshell stories about sexual assault allegations towards film mogul Harvey Weinstein that ignited an industry-wide reckoning about energy constructions and abuses.
The Academy’s Board of Governors voted to expel Weinstein shortly after the stories. Afterward, with questions arising about different members who remained in good standing regardless of being accused, Bailey mentioned in a memo to members that the group “can’t, and won’t, be an inquisitorial courtroom, however we will be part of a bigger initiative to outline requirements of conduct and to assist the weak ladies and men who could also be at private and profession danger due to violations of moral requirements by their friends.”
The Academy subsequently adopted a code of conduct stipulating it was no place for “individuals who abuse their standing, energy or affect in a way that violates requirements of decency,” and made it simpler to droop or expel members.
“I could also be a 75-year-old white male, however I am each bit as gratified because the youngest of you right here that the fossilized bedrock of lots of Hollywood’s worst abuses are being jackhammered into oblivion,” Bailey mentioned on the 2018 Oscars luncheon.
Quickly after, Bailey himself was accused of making an attempt to the touch a girl inappropriately on a film set a decade prior. Bailey denied the allegation and an Academy investigation decided no additional motion was required in March 2018. He was reelected to a second time period later that yr.
Bailey’s tenure additionally noticed makes an attempt to vary the Academy Awards ceremony that grew contentious. In 2018, the Academy introduced the Oscars would add a well-liked movie award and shorten the telecast by bumping the presentation of sure classes to industrial breaks.
“We now have heard from lots of you about enhancements wanted to maintain the Oscars and our Academy related in a altering world,” Bailey and Academy CEO Daybreak Hudson wrote in an e mail to members.
The strikes sparked fast backlash, together with fears that the brand new class would relegate hits like that yr’s “Black Panther” out of competition for the very best movie award. A month later, the “excellent achievement in well-liked movie” award had been tabled.
Bailey advised The Related Press on the time that he had been shocked by the extraordinary response.
“The concept of this award was not about making an attempt to ensure that sure varieties of huge mass market photos get acknowledged. To my thoughts, it is extra in regards to the sort of photos which might be so tough to get made,” he mentioned. He championed “center photos,” citing his personal movies as examples of films with bigger budgets that do not are likely to get laurels.
(The choice to chop classes from the telecast was additionally unpopular, however caught – briefly. All classes have since been restored to the present.)
Bailey is survived by Littleton, a former Academy governor and movie editor who was nominated for an Oscar for “E.T. The Further-Terrestrial.” She was introduced because the recipient of an honorary Oscar this yr, however the Governors Awards ceremony was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes.
The Oscars are ever-evolving, with extra adjustments since Bailey’s time on the high
In his view, the Oscars couldn’t be a static entity. As a substitute, he advised the AP in 2018, the statuette “is a logo of excellence in an ever-changing {industry}. And what we’re making an attempt to do is sustain with these adjustments and honor these adjustments. It is not prefer it’s frozen in time, these awards.”
“For an establishment that folks maintain saying is irrelevant and is out of contact with all the things to do with the {industry}, and there are individuals who say that, they appear to be very desirous to sort of leap into the fray, voice their opinions and create dialogue,” Bailey mentioned. “If we’re that irrelevant, why is all people so involved about it?”
