The 2026 Academy Awards may be done and dusted, but the controversy surrounding its In Memoriam segment refuses to die down. The show’s producers have come under fire for leaving out several prominent names, including veteran star Dharmendra, from the televised tribute. Amid the growing backlash, broadcast executive Rob Mills, who oversees the telecast, weighed in on the criticism, defending the segment as one of the most complex and challenging aspects of putting the show together.
Oscars exec on In Memoriam omissions
During an interview with Variety, Rob Mills, Walt Disney Television’s EVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment, defended the decision to omit some names from the In Memoriam segment during the Oscars 2026 broadcast.
Rob was asked about the In Memoriam segment, which drew criticism for leaving out several notable names, and the backlash it sparked among viewers.
To this, Rob said that it is the Academy’s call on who ends up on the telecast, but it is hard. “I think it’s the hardest thing they possibly do. It always is hard when they are sort of villainised for this. Yes, there’s always people who are left out. Unfortunately, we’re losing more and more people, and especially, we’re losing legendary people every year, so it is probably the hardest needle to thread. I do think what they did last night might have been the best In Memoriam in the history of the Oscars,” he said.
He also spoke about the segment in the interview with The Wrap, admitting that conceptualising the segment is always a big task.
Giving a peek into what goes behind it all, he said, “Robert Redford passed away before, and then when Diane Keaton passed away, and those are two monumental legends — this is in the fall. Now, the advantage we had too with the show was the producers were in place before last year’s show … so you can start planning for that now. When you lose people like that … the In Memoriam really needs to be really, really done — these are legendary names for losing. And then obviously the tragedy with Rob and Michelle Reiner was just awful. When that happened, I think that’s when they started to really think about, ‘Okay, how is this going to take shape? What are we going to do?’… It’s a big task that I think [Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan] met the moment beautifully.”
In Memoriam segment during Oscars 2026 slammed
The 98th Academy Awards, held in Los Angeles on Sunday night, sparked disappointment among viewers after several late icons, including Dharmendra, were missing from the extended In Memoriam segment during the live broadcast.
During the ceremony on Sunday, the In Memoriam segment paid tribute to the late Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, among many Hollywood legends lost this year. The lost icons that featured in the segment included Robert Redford, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton.
In an interview with Subhash K Jha for Bollywood Hungama, Hema reacted to his omission from the Oscars tribute and said, “It is a shame, of course. A shame for them to have overlooked an actor who means so much to so many people across many parts of the world. Dharamji was known and recognised everywhere.”
Later, Dharmendra’s name was included in the tribute on the official website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Hollywood actors, including James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane, were also included in the list with the other 300 names, including actors, directors, producers, and screenwriters who the film world lost over the past year.
