A new documentary produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon is being ruled ineligible to compete for Best Documentary at the upcoming Oscars.
The film – Kiss the Future – screened in 139 AMC Theatres cinemas nationwide, including several Oscar-qualifying markets like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.
However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences documentary branch claims that the film only played two times per day throughout the run, and not three times a day which is listed in the Oscar rules.
Affleck, Damon and fellow producer Sarah Anthony filed an appeal to the Academy, though it was rejected, according to Deadline.
Now the film’s director – Nenad Cicin-Sain – is arguing that the Academy should honor the rules, which technically shouldn’t exclude the film.
After the original story ran on Monday, many noted that there was nothing in the rules that stated the film had to play on just one single screen in a qualifying market.
If you take into account all the qualifying markets Kiss the Future played in collectively, it should qualify.
Cicin-Sain wrote to the Academy on Monday, stating that there is no specific rule that should deem his film ineligible.
‘There is no specific rule stating that the required three daily screenings for Academy Award qualification must all occur in the same theater within a qualifying city,” Cicin-Sain wrote to Natalie Wade, the Academy’s Senior Director, Member Relations and Awards Administration.
‘The rule emphasizes that the film must play at least three times a day over a consecutive seven-day period in one of the qualifying U.S. metro areas. These cities include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Area, the director added.
‘Kiss the Future played in all those markets for two weeks and far exceeded the minimum requirement of screenings per day (more than 3 times a day),’ Cicin-Said added.
Cicin-Sain added, ‘The rulebook you provided specifies that a film must play **three times daily** in a qualifying city, but it **does not explicitly state** that these screenings must all occur in the *same theater* within the qualifying city… Can you please provide where it says “3 times a day in the same theater?”‘
The director adds that the rulebook they were provided with, which the filmmakers claim was for the 96th Oscars, includes no mention of a documentary needing to play in one single location three times a day.
However, the Academy claims a rule was added for the upcoming 97tth Academy Awards, which states, ‘The seven consecutive days of the theatrical release are required to occur in one venue.’
The Academy has yet to indicate why this new rule was added that would narrow, not broaden, the qualification, since most qualifying documentaries get a token one-theater a.k.a. ‘four wall’ release
There is no indication from the Academy why it would introduce such a narrow parameter for the 97th Oscars. And the existence or non-existence of that rule does not speak to the filmmakers’ larger argument — that if the Academy’s goal is to get people to watch films in theaters, Kiss the Future more than met the mark. Most qualifying documentaries only receive a token “four wall” release, but KTF got what amounts to a wide release for a nonfiction film.
‘What they’re doing is they’re enforcing the letter of the rule and not the spirit of the rule,” Cicin-Sain told said on Monday.
‘And if the spirit of the rule is to put movies in theaters — and that’s what we did by exhibiting it in as many theaters possible… and then you’re not qualifying, something’s wrong,’ he added.
The film explores the 1990 siege of Sarajevo, and showcased how the music of U2 helped uplift the city’s residents,
