'The Hurt Locker' Producer Breaks Oscar Rules… Now What?
An eleventh hour fumble, but will it affect the race?
Well, this is an interesting turn of events considering nothing like this has happened since I started covering movies back in 2003 as the Los Angeles Times is reporting The Hurt Locker co-producer Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures has quite blatantly violated Oscar rules by sending out an e-mail blast to Academy members virtually begging for their vote all while offering up a back-handed slap to Avatar. Chartier has since sent out an apology email, but let's face it once the rules have been broken they've been broken. It's not like we're talking about Major League Baseball here and a steroids scandal, this is bigger than that… this is the Oscars!
Both emails have been posted by the Los Angeles Times and just below is the original, rule-breaker:
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!
I'm sure you know plenty of people you've worked with who are academy members whether a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!
best regards,
Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures
Big deal right? I know that's what you're thinking considering "begging" for votes is pretty much all it seems these people do. However, there is a difference between an all out marketing blitz of "For Your Consideration" advertisements in the pages of Variety and contacting Academy members directly and pretty much saying, "Vote for us and not them."
Considering this is an email we're talking about, here are the Academy's rules specifically mentioning email correspondence:
E-mail that is sent to Academy members must adhere to the same regulations concerning content and appearance as direct mailings that are delivered by the post office or via other delivery methods. It may not extol the merits of a film, an achievement or an individual. It may not contain quotes from reviews about a film or an achievement, nor should it refer to other honors or awards, past or present, that have been received by either the film or those involved in the production or distribution of the film. Except as permitted in Regulation #5, e-mail to members may not include mention of, or links to, any Web site that promotes any eligible film.
So what comes of this? Well, the rules aren't specific on penalties saying, "All penalties will be at the discretion of the Board of Governors and in response to the seriousness of the violation… [Penalties] might include the significant reduction of a company’s standard allotment of tickets to the Awards presentation. More serious violations could result in a film losing its eligibility for Awards consideration in one or more categories."
I would imagine right about now Chartier is sending in every ticket he has, saying, "Take them all… I'll stay home and watch it on ABC!"
The likelihood of The Hurt Locker losing its eligibility is slim to none. I would even wager Chartier will be able to attend the Oscars with his plus-one, but that still doesn't mean this is all very interesting for us standers-by in an attempt to drum up some reason why the current front-runner could tumble making way for the $500 million elephant in the room or the Nat-zee feature from one QT.
Just below is Chartier's apology letter:
Last week I emailed you regarding the Oscars next week, generally, and "The Hurt Locker," in particular.
My email to you was out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgement is. I was even more wrong, both personally and professionally, to ask for your help in encouraging others to vote for the film and to comment on another movie. As passionate as I am about the film we made, this was an extremely inappropriate email to send, and something that the Academy strongly disapproves of in the rules.
My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken the time to read the rules.
I am emailing each person this very same statement asking to retract my previous email and requesting that you please disregard it.
I truly apologize to anyone I have offended.
Sincerely yours,
best regards,
Nicolas Chartier
Voltage Pictures, LLC
What do you think? Is punishment in order or is it silly for the Academy to even have such rules considering we all know behind-the-scenes dealings go on every day?
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I vote that the rule is silly to begin with. Anyways, he has apologized so I think the matter should be buried and everyone should move on.
I still hope Bigelow wins director, but I hope it loses Best Picture now.
I honestly think that since he is a producer that Hurt Locker loose eligibility for best picture, he bluntly broke a rule that everyone else adheres by this is no different from jury tampering in a court case, whats done is done the jury's been tainted and no apology can fix that.
its an email, dont act like he murdered a voter
…good God.
Who honestly cares enough?
And the Oscar goes to…Inglourious Basterds!!!
Yes! Inglorious Basterds is the best movie of the year (followed closely by The Hurt Locker), and should win big. QT is the man…
hell yes. please.
Sending e-mail for voters and for gathering support? Did he think he is running for class president?
Punishment should be castration, just for being that dumb.
What an idiot! So what its just an E-MAIL? YOU CANT DO THAT! He should be disqualified as with the movie. Thats breaking MAJOR rules.
I hope to GOD… it doesnt win best picture or best screenplay. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS DESERVES IT.
This made my morning! :)
That's sad…I mean his film is the frontrunner; why even do it? And saying not to vote for a "$500 Million Film" was childish…
Well even if The Hurt Locker is DQ, the film that wins is always going to be known as the film that won because The Hurt Locker was DQ, so I'd rather it be kept in and have Inglourious Basterds win it that way.
Well The Hurt Locker should never have been nominated for Best Picture in the first place. Seriously, it's a good movie but it's not great, it's certainly not the BEST. It's a case of another best pic nomination based on a whole host of criteria that aren't related to what is actually a great film. I'm still at a loss as to why so many critics consider it to, although I'm aware that many critics like to rub rhubarb's with other critics to fit in to the cool crowd. Apart from that…
EXACTLY!!! Why is The Hurt Locker getting so many awards?
Why has it been destined to win since June? Why is it so over rated?
Someone has to explain it to me. It was good, but no where near as good as deserving best picture of the year.
There was hardly a story, and the cinematography shook WAY too much. Saving Private Ryan had shaky cinematography without overdoing it. The film was obviously no where near as great as Black Hawk Down. They were both similar in setting, but why is Hurt Locker being favored?
That email has tainted any chances The Hurt Locker had of winning Best Pic, plain and simple.
BATERDS FOR THE WIN!
I think there has been a slight overreaction here.
All he did was email voters asking for their votes. It's not as if voters are stupid enough to say "he asked nicely so we will vote for it." I really don't think it makes any sort of difference. Sure he broke the rule but I can't see the academy doing anything drastic about it, so I can't see it having any effect on the hurt lockers chances of winning best picture…which it will win most likely.
He just didn't asked for their votes.
He said "vote for us because we're an independent movie, don't vote for Avatar because it made a lot of money, so we're better and more important!"
yea but i think your missing the point, if the academy is the major institution it is suppose to be I see it as the type of organization that will value its rules over individuals and their films, its a major infraction and it doesn't matter how childish or harmless it was, its just short of bribing.
There are specific avenues for solicitating your film to voters, they have ads, they have special screenings but this is not allowed, which obviously doesn't occur to some people here that it is very serious.
It is exactly like Jury tampering, where an atourney calls potential jurors and asks their opinion on the lawsuit and tries to sway them, its dishonest and shameful.
What, that was stupid of him, right?
I'm sure some voters now will probably be less sympathetic to his little movie now. Usually people say James Cameron is the most arrogant man in Hollywood. Well, who's being arrogant now??
I don't think he was being arrogant. Far from it in fact. It sounded like a desperate plea which is strange considering they are the heavy favorites. If he was arrogent he wouldn't feel the need to beg for votes.
As for the avatar thing, I think he is simply saying that they are at a disadvantage compared to avatar because much less money was spent.
Exactly Leandro Dubost!
Just imagine outcry if James Cameron or Jon Landau(producer of Avatar) would be doing that!
This is So UNPROFESSIONAL and IMMATURE behaviour. I just can't believe it that he actually was sending these letters. So stupid!
If Hollywood has any integrity at all – they will come down heavily on Chartier and disqualify his film. But I do not think they will because this is going to be a whitewash for Bigelow as the first female director to win an Oscar.
I really hope even "Up" will win rather than this film !!!
It sounds like he just got caught up in the moment and wanted to do everything possible to give his picture the best chance to win. Everyone makes mistakes. He apologized, and hopefully the Academy won't punish the film for one man's mistake. The Hurt Locker still deserves to win, in my opinion.
How about just disqualifying him personally? Best Pictures are supposed to have a maximum of 3 producers, and the Academy used their discretion to include 4 for Hurt Locker. Suppose we take his name out, so only Bigelow, Boal and Shapiro receive their little gold statues, if Hurt Locker actually wins? That should satisfy those who want some punishment and still let the movie stand on its merits.
Is he out of his mind??he think hurt locker will win just by sending an email!! well, I can do that, I just send an email and say please vote for me to get best actress nomination or to win (which is impossible…:p)
and he think the academy member want to do what he ask to do??!!!…the academy member not stupid…
ps :sorry if I offended someone….and sorry if I make a wrong English :)
Unprofessional…..
Being nominated for Oscar is huge honor, just being recognized by Academy was simply good enough.
But, I understand his reasons. Although his movie will most likely be the front runner for Best Picture, he simply do his efforts to gain some vote. And I believe many producers did this often under the table…..
He made his apology, than that's it…
Will it affect the results for his movie, maybe….
Will it affect Kathyrn Bigelow??? Small chance although James Cameron still be on her shadow along with Quentin…
Will this stunt be remembered as an Oscar scandal years ahead? Absolutely.
Regards from Indonesia.
He said it. He retracted it. Who. Effin'. Cares.
I don't think that it makes a difference one way or the other. Besides, some of you seem to be naive to the fact that voting closes on March 2nd. I imagine that the majority of Academy members have already mailed in their ballots and won't be surprised or offended enough not to vote for The Hurt Locker (if they already did).
Also, stop overreacting. Disqualify The Hurt Locker because of some e-mails? Don't make me laugh. Worse things have happened. At the most, I suppose they could disqualify him as a producer.
yea but i think your missing the point, if the academy is the major institution it is suppose to be I see it as the type of organization that will value its rules over individuals and their films, its a major infraction and it doesn't matter how childish or harmless it was, its just short of bribing.
There are specific avenues for solicitating your film to voters, they have ads, they have special screenings but this is not allowed, which obviously doesn't occur to some people here that it is very serious.
It is exactly like Jury tampering, where an atourney calls potential jurors and asks their opinion on the lawsuit and tries to sway them, its dishonest and shameful.
Instead of copying+pasting your original post somewhere else, maybe you could come up with something more inventive and practical?
First of all, read the rules yourself. The Academy isn't even that worried about disciplining people when it comes to these kinds of small matters. "[Penalties] might include the significant reduction of a company’s standard allotment of tickets to the Awards presentation. More serious violations could result in a film losing its eligibility for Awards consideration in one or more categories."
Not only is this laughable not that serious and worse things have happened, but like I said, voting ends on March 2nd, which is exactly one week from today. Don't you think it's a little late? The majority of the Academy has already mailed in their votes, so this is hardly anything to get up in arms about (unless, of course, you have something against The Hurt Locker). The most that can be done and should probably be done is disqualifying him as a producer?
And "like Jury tampering?" Please. This is the Oscars.
and in plus how do you know that the email had no effect on the members of the academy, there are hundreds of members, we don't know who all he sent the email out to, even if one person was swayed by him then its just wrong.
You completely missed what I said.
Funny how most of you are so happy, shouting that the producer should be executed, banished, etc…then go on to route for the Harvey Weinstein film…irony.
Irony, indeed.
rooting* :-D
Harvey Weinstein is extremely lucky man. :)
Like what an earlier poster said..If it was James Cameron who did this, there would be a firestorm and I don't think he'll have many defending him. Imagine him saying "Let's vote for Avatar and make sure a 10mil grossing film will never have the honor of winning Best Picture"
I love how some people don't care about this because it's the Hurt Locker, but if Cameron or Weinstein did this we would all crucify them.
The only people who would overreact about this if it were James Cameron would be people who didn't like/had a grudge against James Cameron and didn't want him to win. The same goes for the current situation with producer Nicolas Chartier and The Hurt Locker. It's hardly that big of a deal, especially since, and I repeat myself, voting ends in just one week.
Precisely. Most voters have probably already sent their ballots in.
BP is between "Avatar" and IB now. Very impressive!
I can't for the life of me see what the big deal is here.
Yes, it's wrong of him to ask for votes like that.
But how does that make the film any worse?
It's called 'Best Picture'. Meaning the best made film of the year.
Why should an email have anything to do with that?
I'm not sticking up for THL by the way. Personally, I think Up In The Air was better.
I just don't see why this should hurt it's chances!
I say the Academy should do nothing. Chartier practically punished himself by making them seem desperate for the Oscar. "Avatar" has a much better chance of winning BP now. But I still hope Kathryn Bigelow gets director. That way, it'll be just how it want it: the deserving picture wins (though IB was my favorite picture of the year, I don't really think it has a big chance at winning BP), and we still get our first female director win.
Wow. Okay, I'll say it a fourth time. The voting closes in one week. More than the majority of ballots have already been collected. Now, are you seriously telling me that because of this incident, Avatar now has a better chance of winning Best Picture? Even though there's more than likely only a very small amount of voters who haven't yet sent in their ballot who could possibly be effected by this? Really?
Do you work at the accounting firm in charge and have confirmation that 75%+ or even 51%+ of all ballots have been returned? Those last minute ballots from people who can't make up their minds can still turn the tide and help someone like Basterds sneak in and win it.
Now if The Hurt Locker loses Best Picture, everybody involved is going to be giving so much shit to this man.
No film has added/lost it's chances from winning Best Picture from this incident. Stop making something out of nothing just because of the film you're rooting for to win.
Hollywood is tough. He'll probably be second guessed every time he tries to get something done in that town now. Punishment enough I think.
You all need to read Nikki Finke's article at Deadline Hollywood:
http://www.deadline.com/2010/02/academy-may-discipline-hurt-locker/
This is the nature of the Awards season beast with studios and individuals constantly badmouthing one another in an effort to get their picture as many awards as possible. Finke even states, "When it appeared in my email, I laughed. Not only because the Voltage Pictures partner didn’t have the guts to even mention Avatar by name. But for months now I have been sent so many emails from so many studios and filmmakers and flacks and insiders badmouthing every rival nominee this Oscar season and talking up their own. How the hell am I to tell them apart? Or tattle on them all? This is the down and dirty system which AMPAS hath wrought and doth condone. And no one is surprised by it, least of all the Academy."
Have any of you even heard about the smear campaign against Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox in favor of Coraline?
Apparently, people are saying Pixar stole the idea for Up from a French movie made in '05 about an elderly woman whose husband passes away. After his death, the city around her is developed and she builds a hot air balloon to take her and her house away.
The case against Mr. Fox is that Wes Anderson was only on set 3 times during the production. From time to time he would phone in from Paris to see how things were going. Doesn't sound like much of a director to me.
It's probably Katzenberg who's doing it lol
This won't do anything to stop The Hurt Locker from winning. The comfort I'll get is that it's going to be one of those winners that fill fade to obscurity and never be heard about again.
@Jon: You can't possibly be naive enough to think that out of approximately 5,777 Academy members, there will be enough last minute ballots to even make such a claim credible.
Come on Guys..what this guy did was stupid but honestly..Hurt Locker is the cup of tea of all critics around the world,if you see all big festival Hurt Locker had dominated…now what? he sent email to BAFTA,or maybe he forgot to email to Golden Globes cause Avatar took the award,this is not gonna have any impact in academy members that already decided..They are not just waiting to the last minute to hear a gossip that make them change their mind,lets say if im a member and Hurt Locker was my pick and i havent voted yet and read something like this,is not gonna make me give the award to something I thought is not better,I would care less,Hurt Locker has the support of all movie critics,Rotten Tomatoes biggest score of the year,and those who really like cinema are not gonna change cause of this…Hurt Locker still will win no matter what,sorry for those who love IB,like me,but I dont see IB as best picture..I guess we all have to wait and see
Do you remember what happened to "Gangs Of New York" seven year ago? Robert Wise's ad asking Academy members to vote for Martin Scorsese's Miramax "Gangs Of New York", the movie ended up getting zero awards despite it's 10 nominations, the same might happen to The Hurt Locker…
I guess if the Academy were really upset about it, couldn't they just remove his name from the 4 producers nominated? Or would it be too late to do that? It wouldn't be fair to the other 3 producers to vote against it just because of this guy.
Oh well. I still think it's chances are high. And it will win more Oscars than Gangs of New York did.
What the author of the email should REALLY be embarrassed about is his poor grasp of written English. He sticks commas where sentences should end, and thus he has long and awkward run-on sentences that makes him look semi-literate AT BEST. A Junior High school student can write better than that. I may be one of the few people left of Earth who gets his underwear in a twist over stuff like this. But I hope enough of you who read that email will see it for what it is — laughably bad writing. I hope Mr. Chartier sticks to producing and will leave the writing to those who can do it better.
to jawsfan:
What do you mean, you're left of earth? Where, on mars? hehehe
I'm with you though…
OOPS! Thanks for catching that typo, Pedro Afonso. I got a little excited when I typed, I guess. So long as everyone knows the difference between an accident and ignorance…
you're welcome. and you're right, there's a huge difference. but that typo was screaming for a joke… sorry.