Filed this morning by Hollywood Reporter award-season columnist Scott Feinberg following last night’s NYFF screening of Ava Duvernay‘s 13th, which seems (emphasis on that word) to have a good shot at winning the Best Feature Doc Oscar:
“It will be interesting to see how the Academy’s documentary branch responds to this film. It’s certainly well made and impactful” — okay, here comes the downside — “but DuVernay has made herself into a divisive figure within the Academy, having essentially suggested that the organization’s old white members can’t consider diverse Oscar contenders objectively — even though her own breakthrough film, Selma, received a best picture Oscar nom and was awarded a best original song Oscar.
“Moreover, the doc branch is this year considering an even more ambitious and epic film about race in America, ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America. Will there be room on the shortlist of 15 films for both of them?”
Jesus, Feinberg is suggesting that 13th might not even make the shortlist? Or is…what, suggesting that there may be only room for one 2016 shortlist doc about the African-American experience? I wrote yesterday that Duvernay would have to attend Feinberg’s Savannah Film Festival documentary panel for that event to seem complete and comprehensive, but I guess that won’t happen now.
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