Document This!

It's a bad day for documentaries!

I just read a report at Aint-It-Cool-News about the MPAA and their new guidelines for getting your film nominated. I guess this means my documentary, White Trash Cooking, won' be eligible! Damn!

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have quietly established new eligibility rules for documentary features.

In addition to a seven-day qualifying exhibition where docs have to play for at least seven consecutive days, twice a day, in either New York or Los Angeles, they now must complete a multi-state theatrical rollout of fourteen other markets (!) in at least ten different states (!!) twice a day for at least three consecutive days each.

The seven-day qualifying exhibition also must be completed by August 31, 2007. So, any doc that premieres at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (which likes to secure world premieres) in mid-September obviously won't make that August deadline and therefore will have to wait for submission the following year (2009 awards show).

Short documentaries now must also run in at least for additional cities in the U.S. once a day for two consecutive days.

Furthermore, documentaries filmed digitally must be shot in a particular format and meet certain projection requirements if they want to avoid being blown up to 16mm, 35mm or 70mm.

To read more of this ridiculous story, click here.