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Topic: L.A. Critics Call Off Awards (Read 117 times)

Rhune
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L.A. Critics Call Off Awards
« on: Oct 20^th, 2003, 6:47pm »

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L.A. Critics Call Off Awards

by Josh Grossberg
Oct 20, 2003, 10:30 AM PT

Now it's getting nasty.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association is the latest group to gripe over the Motion Picture Association of America's decision to ban screeners for Hollywood award voters: But the L.A. reviewers are going one step forward than writing a nasty letter--instead, they're flat-out scrapping their annual awards in protest.

After much debate, group members, who had previously endorsed a statement against the ban, voted on Saturday not to dole out their traditional year-end prizes, which often serve as a harbinger for Oscar nominations and a launching pad for lower-profile films.

The L.A. critics did leave an out clause, though. They said if the movie studios repealed the prohibition, the 2003 awards would be reinstated.

The awards had been scheduled to be voted on December 13 and handed out January 26.

The MPAA's edict, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association says, would give an unfair advantage to major releases and likely result in a disproportionate amount of Oscar attention, because smaller films, which don't play in as many theaters or in smaller markets, would not be able to attract voters' attention without being available for home viewing.

"The ban on screeners seriously inhibits our ability to work as professionals and compromises the integrity and fairness of the evaluative process," the group said in a statement.

The association's president, Jean Oppenheimer, explains that by sending out screeners--i.e. VHS or DVD copies of currently playing films--voters are exposed to more than just what's playing at the local cineplex.

"Our members make every effort to see the films on the big screen," Oppenheimer told Reuters. "But the number of films that open from mid-November through December is [huge] and it's almost physically impossible to get to everything."

The critics also contend that screeners allow for repeated viewings of more obscure works long after they've left the cinema, often aiding in how they vote later on.

Considered one of the most influential critics groups in the biz, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has championed such eventual Oscar winners as Rocky and Unforgiven, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Steven Soderbergh (in a two-fer for Traffic and Erin Brockovich) and Boys Don't Cry star Hilary Swank, and propelled more art-house fare, like Do the Right Thing, The Insider, Secret and Lies, into contention.

The activist-minded group, which numbers about 50 print and broadcast reviewers, most famously resurrected Brazil, voting the Terry Gilliam epic its Best Film prize and forcing Universal to actually release the long-shelved movie.

An MPAA official could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Since the ban was approved on September 30, reps of the New York, Broadcast and Online film critics groups have ripped the decision, but none has gone as far as cancel their kudos.

Last week, more than 140 of the Industry's most esteemed directors, including Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and Francis Ford Coppola, lent their John Hancock to an open letter attacting the MPAA's diktat, arguing it does nothing to solve the stated goal of stomping out piracy but rather destroys their film's Oscar chances.

Days later, more than 300 acting types, among them Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Holly Hunter and Nick Nolte, signed another missive, calling for an end to the ban.

All the grumbling seems to be having some effect.

MPAA boss Jack Valenti, who earlier said he would not rescind the ban, held a closed-door meeting on Thursday with reps from all the major studios to discuss a compromise that would prevent illegal duplication and distribution of screeners but placate those who want to send out copies to voters.

Although no decision has been finalized, several alternative plans were bandied about, including mailing out watermarked tapes that can be traced back to individual voters or just sending out tapes for films playing in fewer than 800 theaters.

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Rhune
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Re: L.A. Critics Call Off Awards
« Reply #1 on: Oct 21^st, 2003, 5:39pm »

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Oscar Screener Ban Plan Scrapped

by Lia Haberman
Oct 21, 2003, 9:30 AM PT

The good news: the MPAA and Hollywood's major studios are about to revoke the Oscar screener ban.

The bad news: Academy members will be the only ones to receive tapes, to the exclusion of the directors, writers and actors guilds, members of the press and your hipster friend Bob, who knew a guy that knew a guy who could get him copies.

According to Variety, an announcement is expected this week regarding the compromise that would allow studios big and small to send out their screeners.

The decision follows an intensive weekend huddle between Jack Valenti, prez of the Motion Picture Association of America, and the studio head honchos to arrive at an agreement.

Maintaining an exclusive mailing list, the MPAA hopes, will keep a lid on the video piracy which prompted the ban in the first place while still giving Oscar voters access to movies they might otherwise not get to see.

The studios reportedly agreed to send out VHS screeners (recipients previously had a choice between VHS and DVD) encrypted with a special security code traceable to individual Academy members. (Such a move will, presumably, keep the likes of Steven Spielberg from cranking out a few extra copies and selling them on eBay.)

Industry scuttlebutt suggests Valenti was keen on placating the creative community, which has vociferously protested the ban. Studio chiefs at Paramount, Universal and Sony also adopted a conciliatory attitude while the heads of Warner Bros. and Fox, widely credited with engineering the unpopular decision, were harder to convince.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is purportedly involved in the talks as well, hashing out possible penalties if a screener is pirated. The organization, which was not involved in hatching the ban plan, has remained largely silent on the controversy.

Not so Hollywood's creative community.

First to cry foul were the indie studios and specialty distribution groups who complained the ban had less to do with preventing piracy than keeping the smaller distributors from scoring major Hollywood awards.

Next, 140 of the Industry's most esteemed directors, including Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and Francis Ford Coppola, sent an open letter to Valenti criticizing the move, which they said prevented their films from getting noticed.

Then came the actors, more than 300 of them, including Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Holly Hunter and Nick Nolte, who signed another missive, calling for an end to the ban.

The latest group to gripe about the screener ban was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which threatened last week to nix its year-end awards ceremony unless the movie studios repealed the prohibition. It is not immediately clear if the MPAA's reported compromise will affect the L.A. critics' cancellation.

The New York Film Critics Circle is currently polling its members to see if they want to follow L.A.'s lead. Ditto the National Society of Film Critics. However, any action by those groups is unlikely to take place until after the MPAA's announcement this week.

The upcoming verdict is being closely followed by all parties. A source told Variety that up to 10 antitrust lawsuits could be filed against the studios and the MPAA if the ban is not lifted.

"There have been a lot of conversations with attorneys to look into the feasibility of lawsuits," said producer Ted Hope, a leader in the ban-the-ban campaign. "I've certainly consulted more than one attorney to find out what my recourse would be, and that's been in conjunction with other producers."

But the reported solution is generally seen to be acceptable to Hope and others.

"I find it incredibly heartening that people got behind this in such a rapid fashion and that the voices were heard," Hope told Variety. "The main thing now is that time is of the essence."

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