I heard that the Academy disqualified Brad Pitt from being listed as a producer for “The Departed”. Why? And was their disqualification valid or politics?
Talking out of my ass here, recollections from an article I read a while back: because of last year’s “187 producers want a statue” clusterfuck surrounding Crash, and the fact that “Producer” is sometimes more of an honorific than an actual description of the job performed, the Academy limited the number of producers who can come onstage to accept an Oscar to three. Those three are adjudicated in some way prior to the big night.–much in the same way that writers’ credits have always been adjudicated when a script gets passed around more than . . . well, more than other things that get passed around a lot.
Brad Pitt probably was NOT among the three because the adjudicators decided he (guessing here) lent little more than his name and perhaps some dough to the project, while the three who did receive statuettes were probably judged to have been more hands-on than him.
I look forward to addenda and corrections to this post by those more knowledgeable than me.
From Variety:
*It’s amazing to me that people – serious people – are still wasting their time arguing about producer credits. Clearly the job of producing a movie has become an exercise in “group-think.” You never see a movie any more that lists a single producer.
So why does the Producers Guild or the Academy worry whether three or five people are lining up to accept the Oscar? There always seem to be several writers on a movie – why not several producers?
<snip>
In seeking to resolve the issue of credits, the Academy has only further confused things. Rather than favoring the so-called “working producers,” the rulings essentially reward the “money” guys – not that they don’t deserve credit for putting their money where their mouth is. The people who actually put the package together are oddly marginalized.
The Academy’s ruling does not affect screen credits, to be sure – merely who gets to walk the walk on Oscar night. Indeed, the imbroglio brings back memories of the moment when Jack Warner essentially grabbed an Oscar away from Hal Wallis on “Casablanca.” Warner, after all, wrote the check; he felt he deserved the kudos, not the guy who actually produced the movie.*
*The Producers Guild, already stung by a stream of stories about films populated with enough producers to field a couple of football teams, came up with a specific formula for deciding how much a producer contributed to a film.
Each part of the process was given a specific weight: 30% for developing the film, 20% for being involved in pre-production, 20% for work during production and 30% for participating in post-production and marketing.
The guild assembled a three-person arbitration committee to make credit decisions after taking statements from a film’s producers as well as third-party verifications from film crew department heads. It was this committee that awarded credit to all five producers of “Sunshine” and advised the academy to do the same.*
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: Stanley, don’t do this. You’re playing with your life here.
Stanley Motss: Fuck my life. I want the credit.[right]-- Wag The Dog[/right]
Stranger
Actually, the film that broke the camel’s back was Shakespeare in Love, which had 5 producers walk up to accept, including Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein (who many claimed grubbed a credit so he could go on stage). It was at that point that the situation was considered out-of-hand, and all films since have had at most only 3 nominees (which is why, when they announce the nominations, sometime they simply announce the film title and say “Nominees to be determined” because the matter is still under arbitration).
Except that is usually decided upon by the Writer’s Guild and kept consistent throughout awards season–plus, there is no limit to the number of writers that can be nominated for a film (this year, Children of Men had 5).
The 3 limit is not set by the Producer’s Guild but strictly by the Academy. This was most notable this year with Little Miss Sunshine, which had all 5 producers win the PGA award as well as the Independent Spirit Award, but 2 were required to be cut for the Oscars. However, unlike Crash (which had one of its “cut” producers file appeals and lawsuits and such with the Academy), the LMS people didn’t make too much of a fuss.
Actually, both the Producer’s Guild and the Oscars only listed one producer for The Departed, so even though 3 is the top limit, arbitration can determine that one person deserves enough of the credit to merit them being nominated by themselves. This was the case for winner Graham King.
I knew I could count on you to correct me, AG! I should have called you out specifically in that last line of my post above, but I knew I wouldn’t have to!
Ummm, Not Brad Pitt but Brad Grey.
Actually, both.
Pitt is listed as a full-fledged Producer in the credits (not Exec. or whathaveyou).
Grey isn’t (I don’t think), but as Paramount chairman, he was lobbying for recognition quite strongly.
If anyone got added to the roster, it probably would’ve been Grey. But in the long run, it was only King that was cited.
If the rule is only three producers can go on stage to accept the award, what’s the rule about how many producers can be awarded the statue? (And also, does someone who is nominated but does not win the Academy Award receive a certificate or any such thing?)
From this Variety Article A Year of Credit Craziness
It was Brad Grey who was pushing to get his name on the Oscar list.
If you look at the IMDB Credits for The Departed you won’t see Brad Grey.
Brad Pitt is listed because his compay “Plan B Productions” was one of the many production companies involved.
Kudo??? Surely an Editor in such an esteemed magazine should not be allowed to let that one pass.
Variety’s editorial style, is, shall we say, somewhat idiosyncratic.
Although it’s common for the Emmys to have the whole kit & caboodle go on stage after a Best Series win, the Oscars are different: the only ones who go on stage are the actual nominees (each of whom gets their own statuette). There’s no “rule” on who can go onstage, but decorum traditionally dictates that only nominees do.
The only real exception is the Documentary categories, where there’s been a recent tradition of having the winning film’s subject come up to “accept” the award along with the nominee (typically the director, though it used to be the producer), though they don’t get an actual statue themselves. Hence, Al Gore, or Ali & Forman, or Anne Frank’s neighbor. But that’s the only typical exception.
I also stated previously that there are no set limits for how many nominees there can be in other categories, but I misspoke. After 12(!) separate people were nominated for original score for The Color Purple, each individual branch started tightening up its own criteria for who gets on the nomination slot (though a general rule of thumb for most categories is 4).
Oh, and yes, nominees do receive a certificate of nomination. Here’s what one looks like.
What I’ve always wanted to know, if y’all don’t mind the hijack, is who gets the envelopes?
Do they go to the winners, or the presenters or are they kept by the Academy or simply thrown away?
The presenters are often seen specifically handing over the envelopes to the winner along with the statuette. Presumably, those are for keeps, too (though in the rare case of a tie, that might be tougher to figure out).