AJ Schnack posted an article that doc folks should read, In Depth: The Truth About the Academy’s New Rules For Docs. He takes us back to John Sinno’s indieWIRE Open Letter about Seinfeld at the Oscars and the new Oscar qualifying rules for docs. AJ’s thoughts have been formulating over many months and his article is well-thought out and an very interesting read.

I tend to not make a lot of commentary here about awards, and I was thinking about why that is as I considered AJ’s thoughts. His conclusion:

Because if you weren’t hoping, weren’t planning, weren’t thinking all along that you’d have a real theatrical, then you shouldn’t be thinking Oscar.

Why? In my naïveté, I think that awards should be for the best films. Imagine you beg, borrow and steal your way to a wonderful film that gets industry and audience behind it, but the fact is that you won’t win an award such as this without planning and then campaigning for it. The awards are only for those who try (and pay) to secure it, not necessarily for the best films.

AJ lists many deserving films that have been passed over for this particular award, so even when filmmakers try, there are no guarantees that the winds will blow in your favor. I don’t want to minimize the accomplishments of those who have won, but you won’t read a lot about awards here because I don’t really think that it is indicative of the quality of a film. I’m happy when people win recognition and start earning the money they are worth because they have received such awards, but they don’t determine my thoughts about films, wherever they are shown, in case you were wondering.