Posted on 08/04/2004 5:33:31 AM PDT by Wondervixen
A recent broadcast on Cuban television of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" has raised questions about the Oscar eligibility of one of America's most talked-about and critically acclaimed movies of the year.
Under Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) rules, films are disqualified from competing in the Oscar race for best documentary if shown on television or on the Internet within nine months of their theatrical release.
However, an unauthorized or pirated display of a film would not render the movie ineligible, academy spokesman John Pavlik said on Tuesday.
"If somebody steals your movie and puts it on TV, we're not going to penalize you for it," he told Reuters.
Pavlik added that the Academy had not looked into the circumstances surrounding the film's prime-time broadcast last Thursday on state-run television in Cuba.
Moore's blistering critique of the President Bush (news - web sites) and his conduct of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) also played to packed movie houses on the communist-ruled island for a week.
A spokesman for one of the film's U.S. distributors, the Fellowship Adventure Group -- formed by Miramax Films co-chairman Bob and Harvey Weinstein -- told Reuters the TV broadcast in Cuba was "not authorized."
And entertainment trade paper Daily Variety reported that the French-based overseas distributor for the film, Wild Bunch, denied that it had made any TV deal in Cuba.
Because the Academy rule restricting TV or Internet display of Oscar contenders applies only to documentaries, "Fahrenheit 9/11" could still qualify for nomination as best picture, best director or best original screenplay.
Variety speculated that backers of the film might regard the movie, which has been popular among Hollywood's liberal-leaning elite, as having a better chance of clinching a nomination in the best picture race if it was disqualified from the documentary contest.
Producers of Moore's film have another month to decide how they want the film to be entered in Oscar competition. The deadline for submission of documentary candidates is Sept. 1. Pavlik said the academy typically receives about 60 submissions for that category.
Last year's Academy Award for best documentary feature went to the Errol Morris film "Fog of War," about the difficult lessons of military conflict learned by former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Moore won the year before for his study of gun violence in America, "Bowling for Columbine."
Oh, but they can change the rules for such a brilliant film director like Michael Moore. (sarcasm)
Not DOCumentary, but CROCKumentary. New genre . . .
Picture of the year....sad...very sad. This is the best they can do.
Of course there are many other Americans, like myself, who already stopped watching years ago.
I only watch the Oscars for the clothes. I mute most of the speeches, and change the channel when someone particularly annoying, like Moore or Streisand, comes on.
I would LOVE to see the Academy nominate this piece of crap for Best Picture. The gross display of their profound bias would wake even more people up to just how anti-American Hollywood really is.
Arrogance-wise, I'd figure SOMEBODY may be willing to push for lunacy like this, but the more they do it, the more Mainstream America is awakened to it.
Just think:
Best Documentary
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Best Best Best
It won at Cannes, didn't it? Best Foreign Film
the academy awards are like the nobel prize (at least the peace prize part) -- to me they are just another instrument for the socialist elite to push their wares...
Yep. Just as they have deemed propaganda documentary.
They already have.
Michael Moore's fabrications are no more a "documentary" than is Shrek II.
This faslamentory film will pull down 3-4 major awards. Business as usual in Commywood.
As conservatives we can't dismiss that lest we be pure hypocrits...
BUMP
Correct..but it will be interesting to here Moore explain why Bush won so easily..
Hitler propagandist Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will would be a more apt analogy.
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