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Moore to pursue best picture Oscar

By ANTHONY BREZNICAN
AP Entertainment Writer





LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Moore says he won't submit "Fahrenheit 9/11" for consideration as best documentary at this year's Academy Awards. Instead, he's going for the bigger prize of best picture.

Moore's critically acclaimed film slams President Bush's war on terror as ill-advised and corrupt. The movie has cheered Democrats but enraged the president's supporters, who booed Moore when he visited the Republican National Convention last week.

"For me the real Oscar would be Bush's defeat on Nov. 2," Moore told The Associated Press during a phone interview Monday from New York.

The $6 million film has become a sensation that collected $117.3 million in the United States this summer, despite an early roadblock when the Walt Disney Co. banned its Miramax Films division from distributing the political hot-potato.

In the midst of the presidential campaign, Moore's announcement is a strategic move for his Oscar campaign. Documentaries and animated films have their own categories, but the conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that those niche awards can limit a film's appeal in the overall best picture class.

Moore said he and his producing partner, Harvey Weinstein, agreed "Fahrenheit 9/11" would stand a better chance if they focused solely on the top Oscar.

He also said he wanted to be "supportive of my teammates in nonfiction film."

So many documentaries - such as the gonzo fast-food satire "Super Size Me" and the sober look at Arab television news in "Control Room" - have made the rounds in theaters recently that Moore, who won the best documentary Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine," said he wanted to give others a chance. "It's not that I want to be disrespectful and say I don't ever want to win a (documentary) Oscar again," Moore said. "This just seems like the right thing to do. ... I don't want to take away from the other nominees and the attention that they richly deserve."

Moore also hinted in a recent interview in Rolling Stone he would like the movie to play on television before the presidential election. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, playing on TV would invalidate its contention in the documentary category, but not for best picture. With the movie coming out on DVD Oct. 5, it's not clear whether the TV deal would happen.

Nominations for the Academy Awards are scheduled to be announced in January.

Regardless of who wins the election, Moore said the movie's presence at the Academy Awards in February will provide another forum for Americans to think about its message.

"The issues in the film - terrorism, the war on terrorism, the Iraq war - will be with us five months from now, sadly," Moore said. "The issues that the film raises will be no less relevant, in the new year."

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release (fiction films do not have the same restriction).

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quote: Michael Schaffer

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I find it interesting that MM cares so much about what kind of Oscar the picture should get nominated for. That seems to suggest to me that he really is in it for the money, not the statement.

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Or that he thinks that he'll make a 'louder' political statement that way. After all, Columbine is the only documentary to have received any significant theatrical distribution this year. Therefore few heads would turn if it wins the documentary Oscar, as it's not up against any real competition. I guess he feels that winning best picture Oscar would enable his political beliefs to get another high-profile airing.
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 09-08-2004, 07:47 AM:
 
Getting best picture would be THE biggest statement he could make. With the seccess it's had he's got to go for it.
 

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Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 09-08-2004, 08:57 AM:
 
His statement that he would like it to be on broadcast TV before the election seems a little false. He knows two things, first that the DVD sales would be hit hard and second that no broadcast or cable station would air it before the election in fear of looking culpable to a violation of the McCain Feingold campain finance reform act that prevents political ads from non-combatants this close to an election.

I would also doubt that any pay cable service would be airing it as the DVD distributor probably also has some guarantee rights regarding time. This would be standard practice where there is usually a set amount of time from the DVD release to make sure the distributor is not cut out of its share of the profits.

It usually lays out a plan of 30-90 days from DVD release for Pay Per View, then an additional 120-600 days from pay cable viewing, then an additional 300-900 days from broadcast or commercial cable viewing. terms are negotiated with the DVD distributor who usually gets thier way because they are the ones paying for it.

With this in mind, I find it very difficult to imagine any distributor who would allow this under thier contract, as it would impact them in a very severe way. It would also impact thier contracts with the pay per view, pay cables, broadcast... etc.

Does anyone know if this movie has been shown on any inflight movies yet?

Ciao

dave
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-08-2004, 10:30 AM:
 
I'm sure it would go down well on a Gulf Air flight!
 

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