‘O.J.’ doccy up for an Oscar? Yes, it fits
THE five-part O.J.: Made in America documentary aired on ABC and ESPN in the last northern-hemisphere summer – and now it’s up for an Academy Award.
The critically acclaimed documentary, a deep dive into the “trial of the century”, earned a best documentary Oscar nomination on Tuesday morning, alongside 13th, I Am Not Your Negro, Fire at Sea and Life Animated.
As a result, O.J. now has a chance to become the first television show to win an Academy Award, and has already been deemed a frontrunner. How is that allowed?
The short answer is O.J. – whose five parts clock in at nearly eight hours long in total – is eligible for the Oscars, as it briefly aired in theatres last May before it made its television premiere.
However, it has inspired debate over how fair it is that a project that aired primarily for television (and was created as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary franchise) gets to compete among more traditional films at Hollywood’s most prestigious award show.
As television viewing evolves, and the lines between TV and film increasingly blur, it becomes a more complicated issue – and one that many people have tried to sort out.
When O.J. won a prize at the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony, the organisation defended itself, Entertainment Weekly reported.
“Voting briefly stopped when one member raised the issue that the documentary leading at that juncture, (director) Ezra Edelman’s O.J.: Made in America, was more of a made-for-television event than a theatrical feature,” read a statement in the organisation’s press release.
“In recognising this superb, panoramic film, we also acknowledge that much great documentary work is now seeded by television entities, among them ESPN (which financed the film), HBO, PBS, Amazon and Netflix, and that the window between a theatrical and television run has closed significantly.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Edelman said when he was approached by 30 for 30 creator Connor Schell about helming the project, he immediately saw it as a movie.
As an increasing number of documentary producers head to the lucrative land of television, get ready for this situation to occur again. – The Washington Post