A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
And now we are really at crunch time, and though I have talked to a few Oscar voters who already have cast their ballots since final voting opened on Monday, many still are waiting closer to next Tuesday’s 5 PM PT deadline to make their decisions. Those planning on voting in the Foreign, Documentary and Shorts races probably will need this rainy holiday weekend just to catch up with that viewing opportunity since the Academy’s DVD set of those categories just went out last week (though streaming was available for the more adventurous).
And if you think front-runner La La Land is letting up for a minute, think again. Even after the 14-time-nominated musical took five BAFTA Awards including Best Picture, Actress and Director last Sunday (after triumphing at most other major awards races), a campaigner with the film told me: “We are not going to let up for a minute. We are going for it.” Indeed. Lionsgate even got writer-director Damien Chazelle booked with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night, followed by an interview with all four anchors of Good Morning America the next morning, where they all fawned over his film. That was a coup considering those shows usually don’t go for directors unless your name is Spielberg, Scorsese or Tarantino.
The Weinstein Company
The studio also has been handing out behind-the-scenes featurettes to outlets (including Deadline) like they were candy on Halloween, not letting any rock go unturned. It clearly is the Harvey Weinstein influence on how Oscar campaigning is conducted that has become the norm in recent years. Meanwhile, Weinstein himself has focused on his big hope, the six-time-nominated Best Picture candidate Lion, by eliminating critics’ quotes from their ads and emphasizing people such as Salman Rushdie, Madeleine Albright, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann of Bloomberg Politics, and Gloria Steinem, who is quoted as saying Lion is “a special gift now that we are being told to isolate ourselves and pretend we are not all passengers on spaceship earth.” It gives the film real gravitas especially in the Donald Trump Muslim ban environment in which this year’s Oscar race has found itself engulfed recently. That is particularly true in the Foreign Language Film contest where one film, Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman continues to be at the center of a storm, one that despite its merits is not being wholly embraced by its competition.
FOREIGN STRIFE INTENSIFIES
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Last week I talked about Farhadi’s statement saying that he is staying away from the Oscars, regardless if he is allowed to come, due to the now-failed travel ban against seven largely Muslim countries including Iran, which is represented at the Oscars by The Salesman. Trade and mainstream media continue to pick up the story, which has had the lopsided effect of giving Farhadi and The Salesman most of the publicity in the race, as well as turning it into a cause celebre to be voted for, according to some, just to make a statement against Trump.
Andrew H. Walker/REX/Shutterstock
This week London’s mayor even jumped into the fray, announcing a free Oscar Night screening of Farhadi’s movie in Trafalgar Square to protest the travel ban. Farhadi jumped on board Tuesday, saying, “The gathering of audience around The Salesman in this famous London square is a symbol of unity against the division and separation of people.” Should The Salesman win, it would be ironic since his film is not about that at all, and really not very political. lt has far less of a pertinent message for the times than, say, fellow nominees A Man Called Ove and Land of Mine. And the moment for any kind of political statement would be lost on the Oscar stage since Farhadi would be sitting at home, refusing to come and join his fellow nominees who also have something important to say and aren’t staying away. Farhadi, who lives in Iran as well as Paris, easily could come to the Oscars and be more effective either on the red carpet, at the Saturday Foreign Symposium, or even on the Dolby stage should he win. But so far, no dice. The Academy won’t even release the six tickets allotted to his film so other foreigners might be able to get seats as it can’t be sure he won’t change his mind.
Music Box Films
With the travel ban now banned by the courts, other nominees in a similar situation seem to be announcing every day that they are thrilled to be invited to the Oscars, have obtained visas and are coming to Hollywood support their films. The growing list includes Bahar Pars, the Iran-born co-star of Swedish nominee A Man Called Ove, a movie that celebrates diversity and humanity among all kinds of people living in the same neighborhood. It also includes the Syrian leader of the White Helmets, Raed Saleh, and Documentary Short nominee The White Helmets’ cinematographer both obtaining visas to attend the Oscars in support of what their movie says about first responders in war-torn Syria. It also includes Hala Kamil, the Syrian subject of another Doc Short nominee Watani: My Homeland. The list also counts filmmakers and subjects from other nominated shorts dealing with immigrants like La Femme et le TGV, Silent Nights, Ennemis Interieurs, 4.1 Miles and so on. The Salesman has less to say about the way we are circa 2017 than perhaps any of those films, Lion, Hell or High Water, Arrival, Hidden Figures and others.
So why does Farhadi stick to the idea that he shouldn’t come? His absence is likely to be just what Trump would want. It means the travel ban had a high-profile effect. It clearly was on the mind of a couple of executives overseeing the companies with other foreign films in the race when I talked to them earlier this week.
Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, which has Germany’s Toni Erdmann and Denmark’s Land of Mine up for Foreign Language Film, is not happy about the situation– especially at how he perceives what the media is writing about in suggesting that some Academy members are being persuaded to vote for The Salesman as a protest vote against Trump. The Guardian, in fact, called the London Oscar-night Salesman screening a “snub” of Trump’s order. “We have been in this game a long time and seen a lot of things happen. There’s political things that happen that are influencers, but this one seems a little different,” he told me. “It seems unfair for someone to write that a vote for Asghar is a vote against Trump.” Keep in mind he respects Farhani having released is previous Oscar winner, The Separation. He worries that new rules now allowing all members of the Academy to vote in the Foreign Language race as opposed to the way it had been for years, when you had to prove you had seen all five nominees in a theater, will mean that some members might just vote for Salesman based on name recognition and as a form of protest, maybe without even seeing it or the other nominees.
“It is not about the subject matter of the movie — it is a cause that has nothing to do with the movie, and that is unfortunate. I called the Academy and asked them if they would make a statement just to remind people that they needed to see all five movies before they vote, and they should really base their vote on what is the best movie, and they told me they were not going to make
Sony Pictures Classics
a statement. I thought it would be appropriate, especially at this time with all that is going on,” he said. “My motivation is that I saw several stories that encouraged people to make a vote that was a political vote rather than one that is about the quality of the film. People that aren’t in the Academy are writing this and urging members to do this,” he said. For the record, the only official statement the Academy has released was at the time of the announcement of the travel ban, when they also singled out this movie and said in part, “We find it extremely troubling that Asghar Farhadi along with the cast and crew of this year’s Oscar-nominated film The Salesman could be barred from entering the country because of their religion or country or origin.” Just by only mentioning that one movie the Academy could appear to be unfairly giving an advantage or springboard for activists trying to make this a political football.
In fact, some members have gone public with the idea of a protest vote. Former critic and Directors Branch member Rod Lurie tweeted right after the ban was announced: “Muslim ban may keep nominee Asghar Farhadi from attending Oscars. I agree voting for him is essential.” He ran out of characters before he could say whether he had seen Farhadi’s movie, or any of the other nominees, and was retweeting a media report that suggested voting for Farhadi was symbolic. Multi Oscar nominated British director Mike Leigh put out a statement announcing
Sony Pictures Classics
his participation in the London event saying, “We must show solidarity with Asghar and his principles, and against divisiveness and hate.” But is this reason enough to vote for the film? Ed Arentz, who manages Music Box Films, distributor of nominee A Man Called Ove as well as recent Foreign Language Film winner Ida, has an optimistic view of Academy members and their approach to voting. “I think Academy Award voters take this very seriously and aren’t inclined to vote for films they haven’t seen in any category,” he said. “I am very confident in the integrity of the Academy and the voting process, otherwise it might as well be an online beauty vote.” Arentz noted that anecdotal evidence suggests that the numbers of people voting for Foreign Language Film has not skyrocketed since the opportunity was opened up to all members…