By mcneditor editor@moviecitynews.com

New Academy Rules: A Statement from the International Documentary Association

Posted Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 - No Comments »

Dear Friend of IDA,

The International Documentary Association applauds the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for striving to make their selection process for documentary films more transparent and democratic. As an organization that has been presenting awards to documentary films for 27 years, IDA has frequently reevaluated its awards criteria and selection process for the same reasons and made a number of changes over the last three years in hopes of creating the most thorough and inclusive procedure possible to effectively recognize the art of nonfiction storytelling.

Since news of the Academy’s changes broke on Sunday, many online discussions have referenced IDA’s DocuWeeks program as a way documentary filmmakers can qualify their films for an Academy Award. A number of things said and inferred about DocuWeeks need to be corrected:

  • For the past 15 years DocuWeeks has screened documentary features and shorts in theatrical runs, qualifying these films for Academy Award consideration and adapting its program yearly to revised Academy rules. Each year, we follow the Academy’s rules to the letter and present films in theatrical runs precisely as defined by the Academy. In 15 years, 186 films have qualified for Academy consideration through DocuWeeks.
  • DocuWeeks is presented by IDA as a valuable service to the international documentary filmmaking community. This is reflected in the number of entries received to the program each year. DocuWeeks is a curated program. Films cannot participate in DocuWeeks by just paying a fee. In 2011 86 feature documentaries were submitted to IDA for consideration. Of those, 17 features were selected to be part of the program. Selection is made through a 12-person screening committee watching and discussing entries over a six-week period. Our films are thoughtfully considered and chosen to represent the best of the submissions across a diverse range of films.
  • In 2011 the cost to participate in DocuWeeks as a feature was between $14,000 and $20,000, depending on format and running time. This fee covered the costs of the theatrical runs in both New York and Los Angeles as well as the paid advertising in designated print publications as required by the Academy. These fees are comparable to what a filmmaker would spend for a four-wall run to qualify or a service deal with a traditional distributor for qualifying. Many films participating in DocuWeeks choose to spend additional funds on publicists, travel, additional advertising, etc. Our films play in mainstream theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and are not hidden screenings for the purposes of qualification alone. We actively court press for our filmmakers, and celebrate their films with events and discussions during the duration of the program.
  • Since 1997, 17 documentaries qualified through DocuWeeks have been nominated for the Oscar® and 7 have won the coveted award. These 7 represent over 25% of the Oscars® presented to documentaries over the past twelve years. DocuWeeks-qualified films that have received the Oscar® include Smile Pinki (2008), Taxi To The Dark Side (2007), The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006), Born into Brothels (2004), Chernobyl Heart (2003),The Personals (1998) and The Last Days (1998).

The Academy’s new rules will certainly have an impact on IDA’s DocuWeeks program. IDA will be evaluating that impact over the coming weeks and asking for further information and clarification from the Academy as well as the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times editorial staffs.

Nonetheless, it appears the landscape for documentaries vying for the Oscar will be significantly changed by the new rules proposed by the Academy.  Some seem to favor the well-funded films as well as the better-known filmmakers, but as with any new system the real test will be implementing these rules in 2012. In the meantime, 2012 will also see the celebration of the 28th Annual International Documentary Awards, focused exclusively on the documentary form, and rewarding many exceptional films and filmmakers, some of who would qualify for Academy consideration alongside many who would not. It is our goal to find and recognize the very best in the documentary form worldwide, and we pride ourselves on the number of international films that are nominated and recognized by the IDA each year. Documentaries are not a branch of what we do, they are all that we do.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT,

Michael Lumpkin
Executive Director

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“I’m in Locarno, my movie is premiering for 1,000 people, which is nuts. A huge-ass screening, second day of the festival, 7:30pm in the sidebar competition. It’s comparable to Un Certain Regard or Director’s Fortnight. Every movie I saw in that section was fun, brilliant movies from around the world. The main competition was like Aza Jacobs and Mia Hansen-Løve, people who have been around. And I was like, “This is crazy. What am I doing inside the bloodstream of this establishment? I’m 27. I don’t belong here.” Every person I talked to there couldn’t believe what the movie cost, and then couldn’t believe when I told them what other American movies cost. We were the cheapest movie there by 65%. The next cheapest movie cost I think three times as much as we did. And they were just like, “You can’t make movies for what you’re telling us your movie cost.” And I told them, “Well, I can, I’m here, I’m in the same section as you are, so you are wrong. People think I’m lying when I tell them my budget. And also everyone likes it. I’m having a great time and people are being very responsive. Maurice Pialat’s widow was like, “I heard your movie’s good, I want a copy of it.” I’m like, “Well this is f**kin’ crazy.” Pedro Costa saw it there and really liked it and I’m like, What am I doing? I had gone in two months from screening at BAM for a lot of friends to Pedro Costa? This is the exact sentence: “Pedro Costa saw your movie. He’s a huge Jerry Lewis fan. He wants to talk to you about your movie and also Jerry Lewis.” And I thought, “I’m out of my element. I cannot have that conversation because that’s ridiculous.” Because his retrospective was happening at Anthology when I worked at Kim’s, and his Criterion box set came out when I was working at Kim’s. He can’t want to talk to me. That’s not possible. That’s not allowed. There is no world where that makes any sense!”  Or like when you wrote me to say that David Gordon Green wrote you to say, “I’m watching The Color Wheel and then I’m going to see Tree of Life.” There is no world where this is allowed! Again, somebody whose DVDs I was putting on the shelf, as, like, a hero. And it’s just like, “Oh, I’ll watch this movie.” There’s just a very fuzzy area in the middle there and it happened very quickly and I don’t understand why.  I still have a voice-mail from Sean [Price Williams, cinematographer]. I wish he was here to talk about it, but the voice-mail is a long pause and he’s just like, “I don’t want to tell you this, because it’s gonna make you so insufferable. I hate having to tell you this, but Leos Carax watched your movie and he really loves it, and he wants to meet you when he comes to New York.” I can’t live in a world where Leos Carax knows who I am, watches my movie, likes it, and thinks, “I wanna meet that guy.”
~ It’s Alex Ross Perry’s World

“I don’t know. It’s been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be to make the films I really dream of making. I was in Italy a few years ago scouting for this very beautiful film I wanted to make with Richard Linklater. We worked really hard on the script for a couple of years and couldn’t get the money together. It was an expensive idea. It’s heartbreaking when that happens over and over again and then the movies that do get made are ones that have lots of women being beaten up or zombies being killed. It’s all fine, it’s all okay, but it’s hard. I remember when River Phoenix died, he was ahead of me on this curve. He kind of realized how hard it was to make serious movies. People like Sidney Lumet figured out how to walk that line, but it’s hard. And it requires patience. It’s a life’s work and I wonder if I’m up to the task.”
~ Weary, Wary Ethan Hawke

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