In just a few minutes it was over. A solid plug for documentaries and an outstanding year of films by presenter (and documentary doyenne-wannabe) Oprah Winfrey, a quick montage of the five nominated features, the opening of an envelope, a strong political statement from a newly-minted Oscar winning director and a thank you to the documentary community from a just-crowned Oscar winning producer.
And then it was done.
After months of speculation and the presentation of countless peer, festival and critics awards, the Oscar went to Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs for INSIDE JOB.
Ferguson took his Oscar and seized his moment: "Forgive me, but I must start by pointing out that three years after a horrible financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail and that's wrong."
In her speech, Marrs spoke of the larger documentary community: "Having only made two films, I still feel that Charles and I are newcomers to this community, but from the beginning we've been made to feel incredibly welcome and supported for which I'm immensely grateful."
Backstage, the filmmakers were asked by questioner about their fellow nominee, Banksy, who inspired a great deal of speculation prior to the ceremony over what he might do if his film, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, won the Oscar. Asked whether all the Banksy talk distracted from documentary, Marrs spoke out in the artist's defense:
"I would never question the integrity of another filmmaker, and I appreciate the fact that there was a film that was fun and funny, and I don't think documentarians should necessarily feel obligated to make films about these really heavy subjects. Although, in some ways, I guess making a film about art is, but I appreciated there was one like that in the mix because I think documentarians should be able to make films about whatever they want."
Ferguson added, "I thought the Banksy film was lovely. A beautiful film."
INSIDE JOB emerged the winner in what seemed to be the closest Oscar contest for Documentary Feature in years. Although no one can be sure - INSIDE JOB may have run away with it - speculation was that the film was in a heated race with Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and Lucy Walker's WASTE LAND. [We predicted EXIT would take it.] As expected, EXIT did win the Spirit Award for Best Documentary on Saturday, with the film's subject Thierry Guetta a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash picking up the award.
With the victory, INSIDE JOB upended most of the recent history in term of precursor awards. JOB was nominated for the Gotham Award and the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary and for three awards at the Cinema Eye Honors (Production, Graphics and Audience Choice) but went home empty handed. It received no nominations from the IDA Awards or from the Spirit Awards.
It did pick up the DGA Award, which now has its first ever two-years-in-a-row streak of matching up with the Oscars, as well as the New York Film Critics award, who had only agreed with the Academy four times in their history: BEST BOY (1980), THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (1984), WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996) and MAN ON WIRE (2008).
Ferguson and Marrs now join a incredibly select list of just 16 individuals that were nominated more than once for the feature documentary Oscar and won: Robert Snyder, Walt Disney, Jacques Cousteau, Louis Clyde Stouman, Arthur Cohn, Murray Lerner, Barbara Kopple, Marvin Heir, Rop Epstein, Marcel Olphuls, Alan and Susan Raymond, Michael Moore and Alex Gibney.
Marrs, who played with the landmark Olympia, WA punk band Bratmobile, is just the third woman in Oscar history (along with Kopple and Susan Raymond) to have that distinction.
Congratulations to Marrs and Ferguson and to all of this year's filmmakers.
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