The New York Times reported Sunday that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary branch is tweaking its qualification rules once again, allowing only theatrical nonfiction feature films that have been reviewed by the NY or LA Times to be considered for Oscar nominations. Furthermore, voting on nominees will be expanded to the entire 166-member Documentary Branch (as opposed to individual committees), and the Academy as a whole can vote for Best Documentary, regardless of how or where members saw the nominated films. The revisions have prompted more than a little hand-wringing around the doc community -- for no especially good reason, alas. Here's why:
1. Films they're seeking to block will still get through.
In a year when the Doc Branch fielded an unprecedented volume of submissions (thanks entirely to the 2010 rule change that expanded the 2011 awards year to 16 months), the Academy wants to screen out docs conceived and produced primarily for television but which qualify for the Oscars with a one-week theatrical run in Manhattan and Los Angeles County. By requiring a newspaper review, said Academy COO Ric Robertson, the Oscars are likelier to reward "genuine theatrical" documentaries. Which would be fine -- if it were true: The same HBO-produced docs that are presently, quietly four-walled at the Coliseum Cinemas in Washington Heights or the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena are just going to do the same old thing in slightly more upmarket venues.
2. The process has always favored bigger films.
Michael Moore, who made his name putatively fighting on behalf of the little guy in the face of outsized institutional malevolence, apparently helped engineer the expanded voting-bloc change in what the NYT's Michael Cieply termed an effort to recognize more "popular and culturally significant films." Ha.…
Connie Nielsen Cristina Dumitru Daisy Fuentes Dania Ramirez Danica Patrick Daniella Alonso Danneel Harris Deanna Russo
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