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So let me get this straight; Nicolas Chartier who financed The Hurt Locker and is one of the 4 officially credited producers can’t attend the Academy Awards because he sent a mass email that never even mentioned Avatar by name? And the Oscars governing body thinks his badmouthing is so much worse than what nearly everyone in the Best Picture category has done year after year? I find it ludicrous that the Academy of shame has made a decision so lame. So I must ask: is it mere coincidence that Academy president Tom Sherak (at one time a bigtime Fox movie exec), Oscars producers Bill Mechanic (at one time a bigtime Fox movie exec) and Adam Shankman (currently a bigtime Fox Broadcast talent), and Academy Board Of Governors member Jim Gianopulos (currently a bigtime Fox movie exec) all have strong ties to the Avatar studio? The Academy should have leaned over backwards not to appear Fox-sympathetic because of this. (Especially when I have emails from the studio accusing “the Hurt Locker people of running the dirtiest campaign and getting away with it”.) And would this draconian action have been taken if Chartier’s name had been Grazer or Rudin or some other Hollywood insider? I think not. Know that I ask these questions as someone who thinks Avatar should win Best Picture (because it changed the way Hollywood makes movies) and James Cameron Best Director (because he changed the way Hollywood makes movies). So, please, no baseless accusations that I’m biased.
- Academy Bars ‘Hurt Locker’ Producer Nicolas Chartier From Oscars
- ‘Hurt Locker’s Nicolas Chartier Admits Sending Private Emails About ‘Avatar’
- Academy May Discipline ‘The Hurt Locker’
- Oscar Campaign Badmouthing Has Begun!
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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It would take exactly one of the big stars – the 10 to 20 million dollars a film crowd – and one or two lesser names to announce that Nick’s party sounds like more fun than the Oscars to get the Academy to back down.
But does anyone in Hollywood have those type of stones?
Academy way over reacted, let Chartrier attend, but Avatar has changed film making forever and deserves best picture.
In a couple years we will see small films utilizing this technology and allowing storytelling on a grander scale for less money than anyone thought possible. It has shattered what an indie could be.
Think about all the CGI you see now in basic cable movies? Sequences that ten years ago made those film economically unfeasible, but now are affordable. Screenwriters and directors of the future will have Cameron to thank for their films getting made.
Whoa there. I think you’re giving James Cameron maybe ever so slightly too much credit. Filmmakers already are using top-notch special effects in low-budgeted movies. Look at District 9 this year. Look at the Russian movies Night Watch and Day Watch, both made for under $5 million but with effects as good as any Hollywood blockbuster.
Thanks everyone for once more reminding the world that although Nikki’s comments section is widely read throughout the industry, it is clearly unrepresentative of the audience for which we make movies.
AVATAR is 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s grossed $709,284.000 to date. Clearly SOMEONE out there is actually moved by the story, the performances, the screenplay, the themes of the film as communicated by imagery and plot. But no, not the “insiders” on here, please, tell us again how the most successful movie of all time has put one big scam over on the audience that liked it so much.
HURT LOCKER was great, so was AVATAR. Apples and Oranges. It’s what makes the whole AA thing so frustrating and compelling. Deal with it.
Let me see if I’m clear on AMPAS policy here
Backhanded complements that don’t mention a film by name and reek of sexism made by a major film director to his ex-wife & rival in the best director category that are easily visible to the public on national TV (PBS) are within the AMPAS rules but God forbid a private email that names a film’s title and more mildly disparages the film by repeating the (likely valid) criticism of other film critics & the public or you don’t get to go to the (likely to be bloated pretentious & boring) ceremonies.
I get that ‘disparagement’ in campaigning is a no-no but AMPAS needs to deal more even-handedly with what exactly constitutes disparagement.
These awards and the telecast are a joke.
The politics involved in the film industry strangely resembles American politics. Health Reform has been reduced to which party can gain or regain power. The anger and disrespect coming from left and the right are apalling. Much the same can be said for the movie industry. Just look at those leaving comments here!
Anyone have ideas on how we can clean up our political situations?
Rules were broken. A punishment was made. Yes, others might have deserved punishment in the past, but I think it was correct to mead out this punishment now.
Obviously we all love movies or else we wouldn’t have such passionate opinions.
Academy members will vote whether it is based on political pettiness, popularity, mud slinging, box office, or quality. This has always been the case. We should respect their decision. We are human. Academy awards are based on subjective feelings. Let us honor those who have received nominations and those who win the awards.
I can’t believe the anti-Avatar sentiment in these comments. Avatar lacking in story? dialogue? didn’t change film making??? Are you serious?
I enjoyed Inglorious Basterds. I thought Hurt Locker was a great movie. But neither of them compare in scope or spectacle to Avatar. If Avatar doesn’t win it will represent the same tragedy of Star Wars not winning. The fact of the matter is that Avatar will go down in history as one of the greatest movies to have been made. Hurt Locker will become a hidden gem representative of the American experience circa 2009 and Inglorious will become a cult fave.
As a film maker, it means a great deal to me that independent films like HL get recognition. It’s important they get heard about, seen and make money – for everyone. Similarly, as a film maker, it’s fucking great seeing Tarantino’s unique tone come to life in the form of Inglorious.
Bottom line, though, Avatar is by far the best motion picture of the year and should be recognized as such. If it’s not, the Academy voters will have made a mistake and the passing of time and history will highlight that mistake much like with Star Wars.
So if he wins an Oscar he can’t go get it. Hmmmmm that’s karma. Sorry I don’t buy indie film is more pure than Avatar. I have one foot in each, you want to be pure spend 5 million on homeless teen shelter, even if you think your art is hardcore and can do more for your community then a homeless teen shelter.
So maybe he got too excited. things either go really slow, then fast, or fast then slow, or if they go its fast fast. So I am not beating up on him.But if he thought, I can do this, I want to do this, I need this, then he should have pressed pause and asked himself, if he SHOULD do this.
If he stopped for one second and thought about this then maybe the first time I would have seen this dude was on TV getting his precious this Sunday.
I use to worry about agents and marketing people making things messy, now you can essentially do all that fucking up your message all by yourself now with a email account. How 2010
I completely agree. I wonder what would happen if instead of FRENCH born Nicholas Chartier the name was Grazer, Bruckheimer, Silver , Rudin or Spielberg…hmhmmmm let me think…The whole thing would be forgottten and he would be at the Oscars. It’s time for Hollywood to let outsiders IN. They are the only ones with fresh ideas and with the passion to make movies people with brains want to see but no one here wants to make.. Not Avatar or Shutter Island or Iron Man…just real movies.
I actually think the Academy is being way too lenient here.
I think the Academy should have disqualified this guy completely.
He’ll still get his statue should HL win, while the 3-producers max rule (which was silly) meant producers who worked on nominated films had no way of winning even if their film did.
He’s being made an example of, and rightfully so.
The message from the Academy should be loud and clear:
Attack your competition, no award for you.
I hope it hasn’t changed the way movies are made – I hate wearing 3D glasses for movies. Totally distracts me from, you know, the freaking movie I paid to see.
Also, the extra charge is for the glasses. I have many pairs now, will they let me in for the regular price? Didn’t think so.
Wow, I so disagree with you Nikki and most of the comments here. I think MORE sanctions should have been taken against Chartier. I have close friends who worked on another one of the best picture nominees who were outraged by Chartier’s email. This actually IS a 10 movie race, not a 2 movie race, and my friends’ hope their movie has an outside shot. They feel just as slapped-in-the-face by Chartier’s blatant rule-breaking as anyone tied to Fox. It doesn’t matter what people have done in the past. We should strive to be fair and just in the present and future.
I find it surprising how much people badmouth the story of Avatar – it didn’t have the greatest dialogue but I actually found the tech to be in support of a story that very much moved me emotionally. Isn’t that the hallmark of a great movie? I left the theater just a bit less cynical. Which is more than I can say for IB with all of its mesmerizing and totally meaningless dialogue and action. QT is great at making nothing seem like something. and HL? unbelievably overhyped. It constantly felt like it should be better than what is really is (doesn’t the director control that?) Avatar has a simple story and message and is brilliantly made. If people allowed a bit of purity back to their hearts, they’d get it easier…
I can’t even begin to say how disgusting this is. It started as something laughable and become something sad. The fact small film garnered enough attention to surpass the bullshit (and was nominated- by their peers) is something worth value.
The poor guy was flying his MOM in to attend. This not only affects Nick, but his family and his film.
Everyone knows that the Oscars are won through PR and NEPOTISM anyway!! Is sending out an overzealous email about your film- that I’m sure no one took seriously, any worse than launching a full-scale corporate campaign? I seems as though the objection is aimed more toward the sender and the medium than the message itself!
Yes, there’s a right way and a wrong thing to do things. Yes, it wasn’t in good taste that he sent out that email. But barring him from the Oscars is WRONG.
From all of us out there who had the dream, mine just died a little bit.
Anybody wonder why this decision came out the day before votes were due? Talk about running a dirty campaign. Because Avatar wanted the Hurt Locker’s cred smeared just as Academy members were voting. And if that wasn’t the case, the Academy should have steered way clear of the appearance of taking sides and announced this today. The fact that they didn’t, I think should speak volumes. Jim Carmeron should show a little grace and good sportsmanship and invite this guy as his guest then we’ll see if the Academy does anything about it.
Why hasn’t the Academy censured the person or office that fed Chartier the membership e-mail addresses?
…just another day in the cannibal village.
I doubt they would have done this if he wasn’t a foreigner and “a Frenchie” to boot. People say he’s an obnoxious and difficult d-bag. No, he’s French. Have any of these people who dumped on him ever actually BEEN to Paris? So he wrote some letters, showed some passion, and tried to support a film he believes in so much he literally risked his house on it. I call that brave, spirited and visionary. Harry Cohn used to do that. And Louis B Mayer, and Jack Warner.
This guy was simply walking in their footsteps and for that, the Harvard-educated bean counters crapped on him.
Hey, I’m with Frenchie.
How has Cameron changed the way that movies are made and directed? In what significant manner? That this tech geek used advanced 3D and CGI? Ye gods! Is everyone taking crazy pills?
Terminator was a masterpiece in comparison to Avatar.
Let him garner all the tech awards he wants and that’s all he deserves.
I have known Nicolas Chartier for over 10 years and consider him to be a very good friend. Nicolas is one of the most honest, straightforward people in this business. He pushed forward with HURT LOCKER when EVERYBODY was telling him (myself included) that Iraq war movies were financial suicide. But POINT BREAK was one of his favorite movies and he just kept saying that he believed in Kathryn and he believed in the script. He is also one of the industry’s strongest proponents for independent film and independent filmmakers. He didn’t bash AVATAR. He simply sent emails to a small number of colleagues asking them to help lobby for his small-budget independent film over the huge-budget studio production that was probably 50 times his budget. While his overzealousness may have technically broken the rules, there is no way that anything he did even remotely comes close to the shenanigans that producers have pulled over the past few years. If he were a big-name Hollywood “player”, there is no way his tickets would have been pulled. I feel really bad that Nicolas is having this honor taken from him. The Academy should do the right thing and give Nic back his tickets. I applaud Graham Taylor, another of Nic’s good friends, for stepping up and throwing a party for him, but it is still not the same. Nicolas is the reason HURT LOCKER got made. Let the guy have his moment. And as far as Avatar being Best Picture, it should win the technical achievement awards for its groundbreaking moviemaking, but 10 years from now when all of the effects are old hat, it will be seen as a cheesy popcorn movie, that is all.
Well, if the Academy has to finally put its foot down and put this to an end…what year should it be?
Thanks Nikki for posting great news and information on your homepage.
I believe The people at the Oscar Exec committee which made the decision to ban producer Nicolas did the worst decision in the Academy’s history in Motion Pictures Awards.
I can see why now the producer has been denied to attend the awards. I hope the academy will over turn their decision and in time save the Oscar name.
Thanks
You mean avatar “changed the way hollywood makes movies” by doing what making them completely boring and dull? I watched this movie in imax 3D, very excited, planned to see it more times — after seeing it the first time, I don’t think you could pay me to watch it again. It should in no way win best picture or director or even be nominated.
Please explain to me how Avatar and James Cameron changed the way movies are made. Please show me the other movies with $200+ million budgets. Please show me the other movies using the facial technology. Show me the money!!!
sherak’s a putz…but thanks to the acadamy’s lame decision, I now know who Nicolas Chartier is,,,before their decision I didn’t know his name from a hole in the ground!
Nicolas should let the world know about his story – about how he built a business from scratch, put his ass on the line for this film when nobody cared and Katheryn Bigalow was unhireable and one step away from Jack and the Box commercials, risking house, life savings, and livelyhood to get the film made (which is really not that great by the way).
Shame on you Academy for punishing the little guy with big brass ones.