EXCLUSIVE: New developments within the Oscar controversy surrounding Kiss the Future, the Matt Damon–Ben Affleck documentary that the Movement Image Academy dominated ineligible for awards consideration.
As Deadline reported Monday, the Academy denied an attraction from producers Damon, Affleck and Sarah Anthony, who argued the movie’s large launch – at 139 AMC cinemas together with screens within the qualifying markets of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Atlanta – ought to make it Oscar-eligible. The documentary department govt committee countered that Kiss the Future solely performed twice a day in a qualifying market, not 3 times a day as stipulated beneath Rule 12 of Oscar tips (learn it right here).
After our story posted, observers on social media commented that nothing within the guidelines stated a movie needed to play on a single display in a qualifying market; taking all of the screens in qualifying markets collectively, Kiss the Future performed far more than 3 times a day. The filmmakers investigated additional and agreed with the evaluation; on that foundation, director Nenad Cicin-Sain wrote to the Academy on Monday night time stating the documentary must be judged to have correctly certified.
Producer Matt Damon and director Nenad Cicin-Sain on the 2023 Tribeca Pageant
Gary Gershoff/WireImage
“There isn’t any particular rule stating that the required three day by day screenings for Academy Award qualification should all happen in the identical theater inside a qualifying metropolis,” Cicin-Sain wrote to Natalie Wade, the Academy’s Senior Director, Member Relations and Awards Administration. “The rule emphasizes that the movie should play no less than 3 times a day over a consecutive seven-day interval in one of many qualifying U.S. metro areas. These cities embody Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Space.
“KISS THE FUTURE performed in all these markets for 2 weeks and much exceeded the minimal requirement of screenings per day (greater than 3 instances a day).”
Cicin-Sain continued in his e-mail to Wade, “The rulebook you offered specifies {that a} movie should play **3 times day by day** in a qualifying metropolis, however it **doesn’t explicitly state** that these screenings should all happen within the *similar theater* inside the qualifying metropolis… Are you able to please present the place it says ‘3 instances a day in the identical theater?’”
The dispute could come right down to which rulebook applies. Below the foundations for the 96th Academy Awards (governing documentaries launched in 2023), no point out is fabricated from a documentary needing to play in a single location 3 times a day. Kiss the Future filmmakers say that is the rulebook the Academy pointed them to, and the one which got here up for them in web searches. Sources with the Academy, nevertheless, say a rule was added for the 97th Academy Awards (governing documentaries launched in 2024) that states, “The seven consecutive days of the theatrical launch are required to happen in a single venue.”
There isn’t any indication from the Academy why it might introduce such a slim parameter for the 97th Oscars. And the existence or non-existence of that rule doesn’t converse to the filmmakers’ bigger argument — that if the Academy’s purpose is to get folks to observe movies in theaters, Kiss the Future greater than met the mark. Most qualifying documentaries solely obtain a token “4 wall” launch, however KTF acquired what quantities to a large launch for a nonfiction movie.
“What they’re doing is that they’re implementing the letter of the rule and never the spirit of the rule,” Cicin-Sain advised Deadline Monday. “And if the spirit of the rule is to place films in theaters — and that’s what we did by exhibiting it in as many theaters attainable… and you then’re not qualifying, one thing’s fallacious.”
U2‘s Adam Clayton, Bono, and producer Matt Damon on the world premiere of ‘Kiss the Future’ in Berlin
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Kiss the Future, which tells the storiy of the siege of Sarajevo within the Nineties and the way U2’s music helped encourage the town’s beleaguered residents, premiered on the Berlin Movie Pageant in 2023 and held its U.S. premiere at Tribeca Pageant. It was nominated for the Cinema for Peace Award and received the Viewers Award on the Sarajevo Movie Pageant.
Cicin-Sain, in an interview with Deadline on Tuesday, stated he’s been heartened by the response to the story of Kiss the Future’s effort to protect its shot at Oscar recognition.
“Simply large help,” he stated, “simply large help from so many individuals within the business and most of the people.”
