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Power to the Press
A new rule to be implemented by the Academy has just made it that much harder for a doco to even be considered for an Oscar nomination...
In a move to reduce the number of documentaries submitted to the Academy each year for consideration, The New York Times has just broken the news that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is planning to implement a new rule which requires any documentary wishing to qualify as a nominee to have been reviewed by The New York Times or the Los Angeles Times.
While this requirement won't affect the majority of documentaries that are released theatrically, it's a crucial move for those works that gain Academy qualification via the International Documentary Association's DocuWeeks program.
For over a decade, DocuWeeks has allowed filmmakers to pay a fee to have their films shown briefly in New York and Los Angeles and thus qualify for the Awards. But under the new rule, these documentaries would only qualify for consideration if a film critic for one of those two US publications chose to review it, something which seems extremely arbitrary.
It also seems detrimental to the host of quality documentaries (often about hard-hitting subjects that may not appeal to the typical movie-going public) that don't have the funds to support a traditional commercial release and are actually trying to think outside the square and be savvy about their distribution strategy.
The consequences of this decision are brought into sharp focus through the example of the marine documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful (pictured), which formerly would have qualified for consideration via DocuWeeks, but has opted for a digital distribution strategy via New Video.
All of this throws up the question of how much power should be given to the press (and a select couple of publications as well) in deciding matters like these and whether this furthers the responsibility of these institutions. There's also something to be said - whether you agree with this change or not - about the power and prestige of these publications, especially in an online world which continually seems to predict the decline of print media.
