In case you weren't keeping score, indies outpaced majors at last night's Oscars. The Hurt Locker was the 18th indie to win Best Oscar in past 30 years. The Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) announced that indies collected 12 Academy Awards (excluding short films), compared to 9 for the major studios. Last night's "Academy Awards, capped by the triumph of The Hurt Locker, celebrate the diversity, quality and creativity of independent films, and are visible evidence that those films matter to our industry and our audiences,” said IFTA President-CEO Jean Prewitt. “We congratulate the artists, risk takers and entrepreneurs of the independent film community and our IFTA members for their extraordinary success this season.” Independent films receiving Oscars and, where applicable, IFTA members involved in production, finance or distribution, were: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, El Secreto De Sus Ojos, The Cove, and The Young Victoria.
Indies Bested Majors (Again) In Oscar Wins
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This article was printed from http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/indies-bested-majors-again-in-oscar-wins/
Summit`s dirty campaigning boiled down to “vote against Avatar because it`s so big and doesn`t need exposure like our small movie and forget that there are other Oscar nominees cause all that matters is that our David must beat Goliavatar not because David is a better movie but because we Summit want to wash off Twilight stigma and become important.” They expertly minimized the importance of everyone except Hl and Avatar while managing to vilify Avatar. HL didn`t win because people voted for it but because they were led to vote against Avatar which wasn`t hard for AMPAS hates sci fi.
That said, karma is a B**** and Summit will go down like NL before it. NL was bathing in LOTR success while robbing LOTR crew off their money. But what goes around comes around and Nl is no more. Summit will have the same fate.
I never for one second thought that going to 10 nominees would change the awards to benefit big movies. Indies will win every time. This was strictly for ratings.
Isn’t that going to happen more as studios move out of production and start buying their films, or selling their distribution services?
Honestly I can tell you that HurtLocker and Precisous didn’t open here at the loca cinema at all. Precious would’ve done fantastic in this market becouse most of Vicksburg ms is African American. Check recent cenus stats. Now the cinema here advertise the Prescious poster for months and it never opened. Now HurtLocker deserved a wider release in my opioin and some internet PR for it. But to holdover movies for months by some cinema operators hurts the independent films as well as the some mainstream ones toos.
I’m so glad The Cove won.
Thank you.
As a Vietnam veteran I was absorbed by Hurt Locker. Small short stories about the war by those who know are so often lost for publication. I wrote a story about a young Special Ops Army guy I met in the Caribbean years ago and it was ‘published’ on the net by a veterans group. I was incouraged to try to publish for real but of course it never happened.
Gregory Fletcher was the first African-American to win for writing. This was an incredible achievement.
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” aka “The Secret in their Eyes” is such a fantastic film that it reminds one what film is capable of doing. Highly recommend checking it out once it hits theaters. The Oscar was well-deserved and I hope it inspires more filmmakers to create compelling movies.
Receiving Oscars for a movie no one really wanted to see “Hurt Locker” is no special acheivement. I am betting the Majors care less about Oscars and instead more about the hundreds of millions Avatar and other major movies are raking in. At least Inglorous Basstards made some money.
Hurt Locker and its $14.7M box office is patethic, and again shows how out-of-touch the Academy has become in the 21st century.
The real winners and great movies are the Box Office winners each year. The only voters that matter – the movie ticket buyer!
Not even the spin can save what amounted to a show worth flushing.
I rarely get ruffled about anything when it comes to show biz … but the Oscars were the only remnant left from my childhood dreams. The idea of the Oscar was something I held sacred. I always wanted to win one of the shining beacons, the physical symbol of an ethereal and unnamable excellence, an idol … god on a shelf, if you will.
But after last night’s strong showing of just how jealous and petty the town can be, the last thing I’d ever want to win is an Oscar. It doesn’t signify the best picture of the year, but the best picture made by someone we don’t envy.
The *only* reason Bigelow’s entertainingly mediocre film aced the awards this season is because it was competing with one made by her genius ex-hubby. And though, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord … all of the itchy little voting fingers couldn’t wait to punish the Genius for dominating the hearts and minds of the masses … yet again.
Film is a communal experience. A filmmaker who can so completely douse the planet-wide consciousness with his ideas, from nothing, is housing a singular connection to the collective unconscious. That’s why so many respond to the work.
And many in the town resent this. Many are bound by blood to a god whose name is Jealous. So to be voted “the best” by this bunch … you have to shoot for outstandingly capable–not genius. You have to be a Spielberg vs. a Kubrick. Too much Shining awakens the green monster, slumbering on the edge of their collective psyche. And the monster skewers genius….it crucifies what it smells is related to the divine.
But the funny thing about genius is that you can’t kill it. It’s immortal. You can kick up clouds of negative dust around it, but you can’t sully it. No one will ever remember “The Hurt Locker” in a day, let alone a decade. Just like no one, outside of the town, remembers the Oscars today. No one is talking about the awards because the movie most people were rooting for … left the ceremony virtually empty-handed. Mediocrity, in its slinkiest form, was resoundingly rewarded. Go figure.
The good thing that comes out of the whole stinkin’ mess is that some of us will strictly be making films for the people, from here on out. The establishment has “showed its ass,” as they say. The people vote with their pocketbooks on which films are the best–not the people who get tricked into the theaters by the genius marketers, but the people who return to see a film again and again, the ones who drag their grandparents out to see it. Only a few of these people will be suffering from professional envy, to the degree that they are willing to forfeit their credibility.
And yes, truth is relative. Those who don’t identify with how one slaves for his/her genius … how one disregards time and space in order to serve it … can judge a film that was obviously crafted haphazardly as the best film of the year. But truth stands the test of time. And when it’s all said and done, we shall see to whom history gives the award. These directors are your Leonardo’s, folks! A decade spent on one flick or on a smile makes it irreplaceable. And the singularity of it all is what is remembered.
How old are you? 12? That’s who was rooting for Avatar. It’s not a great movie, it’s a great experience. The voters picked the best “picture”. Go spew your Shakespheare jerk-off speak elsewhere.
I think the Oscars are a crapshoot, depending on the vagaries and mood of voters in any given year. I am just so happy and thrilled that for once, a film I loved and a director I loved, a film that also outclassed Avatar on every level, serendipitously won. For once the planets aligned.
Meanwhile, there is a generation of people deluded that somehow a bit of new technology automatically makes for superior filmmaking. Cameron is not a genius; Da Vinci is a genius. Cameron used to be a good filmmaker. Kubrick is a true auteur, as is Terrence Malick (who never makes money), to name a couple. Genius is not in the tech but in the sublime realisation of a unique vision. This did not happen in Avatar and Cameron does not have that gift anyway.
I’m so happy the indies won! I’m glad they keep making them. Distribution seems to be the biggest problem as making films has come way down in pricing with better technology. You can make a horror for about $15k these days with off the shelf cameras. Labor is your biggest cost as is the post production and editing or reshooting but the sticking point is distribution and getting the films to the screens.
Would that I could say karma took George Clooney’s Oscar from him. The simple fact is that his acceptable performance didn’t even deserve special mention. Congrats Jeff Bridges. Well done.
IFTA=yawn
Jenn Lee who was a producer on “The Hurt Locker” gives a first hand account from the Nic’s Oscar party as to what went down behind the scenes at Voltage and how they got it produced. Watch this. It is funny and insightful. You can see it at a friend of Nic’s site…
http://filmclosings.com
A great piece.
thanks for nice post!
i appreciate your writing!
Oscar wins is favored by most of us,
the same as this blog.
thanks for sharing.
Oscar wins is a kind of approval,
and most of us agree with this point.
Who else needs a wakeup call are the cinema chains. They and they’re film bookers should share some of the responisbility for Indie films not getting the spread in all markets large and small. For example the local operator,Wilcox, had the poster for Prescious up for months. When it was released the movie never came to Vicksburg which a majority African American population. Tyler Perry films come here from time to time. But to air the trailer and have the poster for its coming but not show it is bad business and discrimination in my opioin. I learned over the weekend the Road stayed at the local cinema for a week and a half. When it came to Paranormal Activity and nearly a hundred people on the Demand it website demanded it to come to the local cinema and that cinema operator/film booker refuses there has to be an issue. Also scme cinemas will hold movies over months at time,this local one is bad about it and squeezes out any new releases; I wouldn’t be surprise if more locals are flocking the Jackson metro market to see newer films. Also some indie films don’t make it to certain areas of the country. I believe that indie films would do well in a small market depending on thier subject matter. I would go see the last station for example becouse it deals with Leon Trosky for example.
It’s time for cinema operators to be challenged and questioned on thier business practices. Indie films have as much right to be viewed as mainstream flop and blockbusters. By the way I was in Park City Utah,and a merchant told me that Robert Redford has been angry at the film industry for sometime. Interesting eh?
Let’s be honest. Up in the Air sucked balls’ wax. It was an extended sitcom. Thank you Academy for speaking the truth in anonymity. Because you are were raving to the Reitman’s faces’ for so long now they go home empty. Simply, bad film.
I don’t know how long “Hurt Locker” will stay in theatres, but if it’s going to be around for another two months, it could triple it’s take so far thanks to the Oscars.
There’s a difference between eccentric artistic taste and outright elitist arrogance. The Academy’s crossed that line for a second year in a row.
Would have liked to have seen Avatar for best picture, simply because it capped off the most revolutionary year in sci-fi.
(Calm down, Avatar haters. I’m not a so-called Avatard. I’ve only seen it twice)
Watchmen: An acclaimed book everyone thought was unadaptable. Zack Snyder pulled it off and pulled it off well. Yes it got mixed reviews. So did The Reader.
Star Trek: Crisp characterization and an energetic, fresh take on an old, dead franchise.
District 9: The sharpest, smartest sci-fi film in years. (And it was an indie too!)
Avatar: The big one. The fucking force of nature, giving us visuals we’d never seen before. A win by Avatar would have honored the whole genre.
As for Avatar’s story, look to last year’s “best picture.” Who Wants to be a Millionaire – the movie. Talk about pig-headed hypocrisy.
Then there’s “No Country for Old Men” At least Avatar had a fucking ending.
We’ll be in the same situation next year. Yup. Here’s a hypothetical. Ridley’s Robin Hood and Nolan’s Inception take off as blockbusters, receiving massive critical praise. Then comes Toronto and another goddamn art house shit flick no one wants to see. Hype, hype, and more hype. I see it now.
I suppose we could split the indie and studio films into different categories. (Feature doc and Animation have their own groups)
But nah. The Academy loves to show everyone just how far they can shove their head up their own irrelevant ass.
Nice to see Bridges and Bullock win, though. Bullock’s win is especially extraordinary. It’s a mainstream studio film that required her to keep her clothes on…unlike The Reader or Monster’s Ball.