Cuban ‘Fahrenheit’ Telecast Raises Oscar Questions
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The U.S. distributors of Michael Moore’s controversial “Fahrenheit 9/11” said on Tuesday that an unauthorized broadcast of the film on Cuban television will not disqualify the movie from Oscar competition in the feature documentary category.
“The film that was illegally shown on Cuban state-run TV was from an unauthorized, pirated copy,” said a statement issued by Lions Gate Films, IFC Entertainment and the Fellowship Adventure Group, founded by Miramax Films co-chairs Bob and Harvey Weinstein.
Under Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules, documentaries are ineligible for Oscar consideration if displayed on TV or on the Internet within nine months of their theatrical release.
However, an unauthorized or pirated display of a film would not render the movie ineligible, academy spokesman John Pavlik said on Tuesday.
“If somebody steals your movie and puts it on TV, we’re not going to penalize you for it,” he told Reuters.
Lions Gate, IFC and Fellowship Adventure Group said they had informed the academy that the Cuban telecast was not sanctioned by the distributors, adding the academy “has confirmed that the distributors did not violate the rules and had nothing to do with the illegal screening of the movie.”
Questions about the Oscar eligibility of “Fahrenheit 9/11” surfaced after Moore’s blistering critique of the President Bush and his conduct of the war in Iraq was aired last Thursday in prime time on state-run Cuban television.
Copies of the film projected from rough DVD copies also played to packed houses in about 120 theaters across the communist-ruled island for a week.
“Fahrenheit 9/11” could also qualify for nomination as best picture, best director or best original screenplay.
The distributors had no comment on what Oscar categories producers of the film might seek to enter.
Producers of Moore’s film have another month to decide how they want the film to be entered in Oscar competition. The deadline for submission of documentary candidates is Sept. 1. Pavlik said the academy typically receives about 60 submissions for that category.
Last year’s Academy Award for best documentary feature went to the Errol Morris film “Fog of War,” about the difficult lessons of military conflict learned by former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Moore won the year before for his study of gun violence in America, “Bowling for Columbine.”
“Fahrenheit 9/11,” which won top honors at the Cannes film festival in May, has grossed more than $100 million, making it an unprecedented commercial success for a political documentary.
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