Oscar Becomes Eclectic: Without the clear favorites of recent years, the field is populated with fewer film music veterans and more songs from "small" films, begging the question: Could this be the "year of the underdog"? And this year's Long Shot: Encouraged by the triumph of "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" from last year's underdog "A Mighty Wind," the tiniest of this year's original song submissions is the ultra-indie real estate comedy "Open House" from writer-director Dan Mirvish, co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. The song, "Sellin' a Dream," is performed by Oscar-nominated actress Sally Kellerman (1970's MASH) and is described by Mirvish as "a torchy Realtor's lament." Mirvish says his hopes are bolstered by the fact that "nearly every screening and every review" is dominated by praise for the song. Only time will tell if a low-budget musical about real estate can compete with the likes of Jagger and Newman.
Meanwhile, the Original Musical Oscar controversy generated press attention from around the world. Along the way, we also co-founded the "Coalition of the Musical" and launched the "Indie Musical Challenge" to inspire other independent filmmakers to make more musicals. Here are a few links to some of the press coverage of the whole controversy, followed by our official press release:
"Indie Musical Challenge" in the Press!
And join in on the discussion on these forum threads:
For Immediate Release - December 15, 2004
OSCAR® TO MUSICALS: DROP DEAD, STEP LIVELY
Academy Awards Eliminates Original Musical Category
Los Angeles -- The Academy's Board of Governors last night voted to eliminate the Original Musical category despite the fact that there were the requisite number of eligible films according to the Academy's own rules. This decision was based on the Academy's arbitrary assessment that the films were not up to Academy standards of quality.
"It's an outrage," said filmmaker and Slamdance Film Festival co-founder Dan Mirvish, who would have been a potential nominee for two of the five eligible films. "I have a great deal of respect for the Academy, but this decision was disingenuous at best, and arbitrary and capricious at worst. The Academy is a huge stickler for the rules when it comes to filmmakers following them, but it's clearly disregarded the spirit and letter of its own rules because it suited them. You can't score if the ref keeps moving the goalpost."
The five eligible films were "Home on the Range", "Team America," "Greendale" (directed by Neil Young), "Open House" (directed, co-written, and co-produced by Mirvish), and "Big in Germany" (co-written and co-produced by Mirvish, with director Robert Peters). According to the Academy's rules, three of these five films would have received nominations.
"It's clear that the Board of Governors looked at the slate and were unduly embarrassed. The Academy has simply not recognized the strides of independent filmmaking. The prospect of nominating a film made for less than the price of an Oscar gift bag made them squeamish. And the two studio films were a Disney flop and a puppet movie that skewered Hollywood. You think they really wanted Trey Parker showing up in a dress again?" said Mirvish. "Yet for the last four months, staffers at the Academy have been telling me in no uncertain terms that as long we followed the exact letter of the eligibility rules, that if there were five films - no matter their size or quality - then there would be a category."
The five films are still eligible for other categories, including Best Original Song. "Open House" is submitting the song "Sellin' a Dream," performed by Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman (M*A*S*H) and Jerry Doyle, and written by Lawrence Maddox and Dan Mirvish. The song, like all the songs in the film, was performed live, on set, without predubbing or lipsyncing. At festival screenings around the world, the song has been consistently hailed by audiences and critics alike. Chris Gore of FilmThreat wrote: "Kellerman is simply on fire in this film as her performance brought hoots and applause."
Mirvish remarked, "It's no secret that Robert and I made 'Big in Germany' largely to fill out the category in case there weren't enough films. Now it appears that no matter how many indie films we would have made, the Academy wasn't going to recognize them."
"Since 'Chicago' won multiple Oscars two years ago, there's been a lot of talk in Hollywood about the return of the musical," added Mirvish. "So if the Academy is serious about promoting musicals, then they would have stepped up and supported this category as a challenge to Hollywood." The Academy's rules for Original Musical require at least five original songs for each film, and state that stage adaptations and films based on previously recorded songs aren't eligible. Therefore, "Phantom of the Opera," "Ray," "Delovely" and "Beyond the Sea" would not have been eligible even under the broadest reading of the rules. The rule has been in place since 2001, but this is the first year that there have been five eligible films.
For more information, contact Dan Mirvish at 310-839-2569 or 323-304-3593 (cel) or via email at dmirvish@slamdance.com. For more on "Open House," including hi-res stills, production notes, and an mp3 and mpeg of "Sellin' a Dream" go to: http://www.slamdance.com/open.html Screeners and soundtrack CDs are also available to press and Academy® voters upon request.
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