#filmmakers #determine #wins #Oscars #honorable
AFP
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Bart Rutten
editor Nieuwsuur
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Bart Rutten
editor Nieuwsuur
This weekend is the Oscars ceremony. The most important film awards of the year are preceded by an extensive jury process involving thousands of filmmakers. How exactly does that work?
Unlike other film festivals, it is not a select group of jury members who are responsible, but an international group of more than 10,500 filmmakers who have to watch as many films as possible.
Among them are some Dutch people. Paul Verhoeven, for example, the director of Turks Fruit. But there are also lesser-known filmmakers.
I received a pompous email and thought: that’s spam.
Academy lead Aliona van der Horst
The fact that the procedure is complex is evident from the fact that the American organization’s explanation document consists of forty pages. In short, the more than 10,500 members of the Oscar Academy choose the winners in two phases.
In the first round they nominate colleagues from their own professional group. So a costume designer can only suggest another costume designer. An exception applies to ‘best film’; In that most important category, everyone can immediately have their say.
In the final phase, when the final nominations are known, Academy members can cast votes in all categories. They get access to all the films via an app so they don’t have to go to the cinema night after night.
Who are the 10,500 filmmakers?
In addition to well-known actors and directors, the Academy members also include less eye-catching people such as stuntmen or editors. It is not possible to register for that prestigious club. You will only be included if you win an Oscar yourself or if at least two colleagues nominate you.
The latter happened to Aliona van der Horst in 2019. The documentary maker suddenly received a “pompous” invitation in her email, she says. The salutation said something like ‘congratulations, you are an Academy member’. “I thought: that’s spam. Get rid of it.” Later she discovered that it was indeed serious. “Then I fished it out of that spam again.”
White old men
For a long time, the organization behind the Oscars was a closed and conservative stronghold for aging white men. In 2012, the Los Angeles Times calculated that 94 percent of Academy members were white and 77 percent were male. The average age of the members at that time was 62 years.
That changed a few years ago: the Academy club had to become more diverse, so a record number of people received an invitation.
A small film that has barely played in cinemas now suddenly surfaces.
René Mioch
The fact that the jury is now more diverse is evident from the fact that American Fiction – with a predominantly colored cast – received five nominations this year. “A small film that barely played in the cinemas,” says film journalist René Mioch. “But now it suddenly surfaces.”
According to Mioch, European films are also now more visible. “Look at Zone of Interest (Polish-British film about Auschwitz, ed.) with five nominations. People are really looking for gems now.”
The Amsterdam couple Peter Lataster and Petra Lataster-Cszich also belong to the Academy family. They have been making documentaries for decades and when the Oscar jury expanded in 2020, they also received an email that they initially described as spam.
Their own productions look nothing like the bombastic films from Hollywood, yet they are now full members of the club. “I think it is very honorable,” says Peter. They now watch films that they would otherwise never have seen. “That broadens your world,” says Petra.
Academy dues
They also receive all kinds of invitations to premieres, because Hollywood film producers know what lobbying is. But anyone who thinks that the lives of the Dutch Academy members are full of glitz and glamor is wrong. Academy membership costs 450 euros per year. Aliona van der Horst: “So you can also say that we have a very expensive streaming app.”
Mioch is positive about the system in which not a small club but a large group of professionals decides. “Because they talk from knowledge. Not from political conviction.”
‘Oppenheimer evening’
His prediction for the upcoming awards ceremony? It will be a “Oppenheimerevening”. The biopic about ‘atomic father’ Robert Oppenheimer has no fewer than thirteen nominations and, according to the film journalist, will win many golden statues. He calls it a “no-brainer” that Dutchman Hoyte van Hoytema wins an Oscar for his camera work in Oppenheimer.
The Oscar ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
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