Wired: Documenting Moore's Oscar Chances

bracketing, even, the issue of moore's film, the academy rule described below is an interesting one… documentaries that have been distributed (legally, though perhaps not illegally..?) on the web cannot be nominated for oscars…

the article says, "The original intent was to keep documentaries intended primarily for television from being distributed for the minimum theatrical release needed to qualify, then quickly televised. Internet distribution was included in the ban in 2000. The window was six months but was lengthened to nine months for 2004. The rule applies only to documentaries."

since when does widespread democratic (if tv is democratic) distribution degrade a work's quality? is this even a quality issue or a corporate issue? shouldn't the academy be able to determine quality? (um….) doesn't this unfairly favor documentaries that get distribution over the many, many important stories and well-made films that find themselves "stuck" on the internet?

interesting….



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Documenting Moore's Oscar Chances

A strangely worded rule covering the Oscar eligibility of documentaries could spell trouble for Michael Moore, thanks to illegal Internet downloads. Then again, it may not. By Staci D. Kramer.

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64184,00.html?tw=wn_story_mailer