Oscars 2021: Twitter Furious After Academy Cuts Away From Deaf Presenter Marlee Matlin

Oscar showrunners decided to cut away a segment from the prestigious award ceremony, which left a section of the Internet visibly upset

It's not the Oscars unless Twitter is annoyed by something, right? The 93rd Academy Awards ticked all the right boxes on diversity until it came to hearing-impaired actress Marlee Matlin who was one of the presenters this year. Ms Matlin, the only hearing-impaired performer to have won an acting Academy Award - for 1986 film Children Of A Lesser God - signed her speech with an interpreter onstage. The Oscar telecast, however, cut away from her mid-speech, earning the wrath of social media which has shredded the Academy for being "rude." Marlee Matlin, now 55, won the Oscar for Best Actress at the age of 21, the youngest ever winner in the category. Wow #oscars so rude to cut away from Marlee Matlin like that. Whose brilliant idea was that? OMG #Oscars way to marginalize #deaf folks even more by cutting Marlee out of the screen while signing. You could've SHOWN HER in the corner of the screen!!! #MarleeMatlin#asl @TheAcademy You should have split screened or done box in box when #MarleeMatlin was signing about the people nominated. #needswork Uh, why does #MarleeMatlin have a (male) voiceover?! She can speak #oscars Marlee Matlin has the rare opportunity to sign while presenting a couple of categories at the Oscars, and they cut immediately to the nominees with no split or reduced screen, cutting out her signing for the most of her presentation... y'al #Oscars Marlee Matlin's presence at the Oscars this year was particularly special because one of the films on the slate of nominees was Sound Of Metal, the story of a drummer losing his hearing. The two stars of the film, Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci, were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. The poignancy of this appeared to have passed the Academy by, infuriating Twitter. "Wow Oscars! So rude to cut away from Marlee Matlin like that. Whose brilliant idea was that?" tweeted a user.