More Oscar Doc Rules

There have been a few posts on other sites about my recent look at the changing Oscar qualification rules for documentaries. 

Agnes Varnum notes my closing thought and argues:

"I think that awards should be for the best films. Imagine you beg, borrow and steal your way to a wonderful film that gets industry and audience behind it, but the fact is that you won’t win an award such as this without planning and then campaigning for it. The awards are only for those who try (and pay) to secure it, not necessarily for the best films."

Paul Harrill challenges my assertions on the requirement that you must have a 35mm print if you get shortlisted:

"(M)ost documentaries these days — including all five nominated last year — were shot on some form of video. A 35mm blow up may be an “up-rez”, but it is, in all likelihood, a decrease in visual quality of the camera original footage. In all likelihood, the best looking version is the film’s videotape color-corrected edit master tape, which is probably on HDCAM SR. Heck, it might be on DVCam.

My point is this: If a film can qualify for the Oscar without ever making a print (by the new rules, it can), and if a 35mm print is a downgrade in quality (as any 35mm blow up is) then why create some flaming hoop for cash-strapped filmmakers and/or distributors to jump through? This would be a minor point, of course, if such prints didn’t cost $20,000 or more. That’s chump change for a studio; for the smaller outfits that distribute documentaries I would imagine that’s a hefty price for what sounds like a few screenings for the Documentary Committee to decide whether or not you’ll be nominated."

Anthony Kaufman notes that previous rules were more specific about what kinds of theatres you were allowed to play in:

"According to last year's rules, "theaterical roll-out" requirements dictated that venues must:
"Regularly show new releases;" "Charge admission;" "Have regular non-specialized programming open to the general public;" "Exploit and market films through regular listings and advertising;" and "Generally run films for three to seven consecutive days, with multiple showings daily"

Can Schnack or anyone else out there confirm that the 14-city exhibition needn't conform to these rules? And as far as I know, most documentary museum series don't do 3-day runs, with two screenings a day for each individual film, so where exactly will distributor-less movies be going to live up to these requirements?"

I asked Michael Apted specifically about different kinds of venues, such as Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and Los Angeles' American Cinematheque, and he confirmed that the venues would indeed count, so long as there was advertising and admissions.  The current rules do not contain the requirements listed in Anthony's piece, although it does say:

"An exhibition is defined as follows:  All screenings must be held in a commercial motion picture theater for paid admission and must begin between noon and10:00 p.m.  An exhibition must be advertised and exploited in a manner considered normal and customary to the industry.  During an exhibition, a feature documentary film must be screened at least twice daily and a short subject documentary film must be screened at least once daily.  Exhibitions held at festivals, benefits, special events and the like do not fulfill this requirement."

In addition, there are some interesting comments to my post, including some by documentary filmmakers who have been through the process (and one who won).  Also, Ira Deutchman notes that Emerging Pictures' digital screens (24 in 23 cities) meet the requirements for rollout exhibitions this year (last year they did not).

I'm off to Full Frame tomorrow.  More on this topic and coverage from North Carolina in the days ahead.

Comments

[Paul]

For the record, though I took issue with the stuff that AJ notes above, I also agreed with a lot of the other points AJ made.

Also, AJ, I just got around to reading the comments from the first post. Thanks again for providing the forum for a discussion. In addition to finding all of the perspectives interesting, I want to mention that I think you handled the post by "MS" well.

Looking forward to your film at FF!