Anyone confused by the labyrinth that is the Academy’s process for selecting Best Documentary Oscar nominees would be well served by reading Agnes Varnum’s indieWIRE column on the subject. In it, she explains that in order for a film to qualify for a nomination, it can’t have screened on television or online, and it *must* screen in 14 cities *in addition* to playing a one-week “qualifying run” in either New York or Los Angeles.
One way films accomplish that later stipulation is by playing during DocuWeek, a mini-festival organized by the International Documentary Association (IDA) which takes place this year from August 17-23 in Los Angeles. If you live in L.A. or can make the trip, you’ll have a week to catch a number of films fresh from the festival circuit, such as Taxi To the Dark Side, Hear and Now, and Nanking. The program also includes several films that I hadn’t previously heard of that I’d love to see, including Joan Brooker-Marks‘ Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone. Passes for the whole week of films can be purchased at the DocuWeek website linked above.
Oscar campaigns can be extremely costly, and many independent doc makers have to decide whether or not the short-term glory and long-term notoriety that a nomination can bring is a fair trade off for the personal expense. One documentary maker who doesn’t have that problem is, of course, Michael Moore. With Sicko slowly fading out of the public consciousness (it’s now making about $1,700 per screen per week, a significant drop which indieWIRE’s Steve Ramos says “hints at a film nearing the end of its run”), it seems likely that Moore and the Weinstein Company will soon turn their attention to making sure Sicko lands both the nom and the win. With an, um, personality the size of Moore’s in the running, it sort of sucks the life out of the race. I mean, does any other film really have a chance up against the Michael Moore media onslaught?
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