News

Opinion: Oscar Docu Selections Out of Step?

Dec. 6, 2007 -- Documentary filmmaker AJ Schnack rips the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for its selections of films eligible for its documentary Oscar as being too timid and conventional. Writing on the Tribeca Film Festival website, he notes the Oscar documentary list ignores award choices of the International Documentary Association. Schnack advocates using “filmmaking tools in new, exciting, and sometimes experimental ways. The old rulebook, which treats nonfiction as some specialized offshoot of journalism, has been thrown out...Should we prefer a competent, conventionally-styled film to one that swings for the fences, one whose highs hit us in unexpected ways, even if it occasinally falters in its risk taking?" Schnack discloses that one of his documentaries is among those passed over by the Academy.

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www.tribecafilmfestival.org/news-features-theotherdocs.html

    Comment from author Robert Marich. Though Schnack’s commentary is thoughtful, just because new wave documentary filmmakers have “thrown out” the rulebook that doesn’t mean the Academy needs to as well. The documentary category is given special status because under present guidelines it’s supposed to be in touch with reality, as an offshoot of journalism. If that's a burden, then practioners of the new wave should position their films for the general Oscar categories (which means giving up special status and getting in line with everyone else).

    As for the Academy ignoring the choices of the International Documentary Assn., that's why we have all these awards in the first place. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Maybe IDA is the one the got it wrong. These two organizations have different missions and different memberships, so I don't expect that they will march in lock step.