It was a big night in February when ESPN’s 30 for 30 unit won an Academy Award for Best Documntary Feature for its “O.J.: Made in America” series. It gave the Worldwide Leader its very first Oscar.
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The new rule issued by the Motion Picture Academy reads as follows:
“In the Documentary categories, multi-part or limited series are not eligible for awards consideration. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will resolve all questions of eligibility and rules.”
The nomination for O.J.: Made in America had caused some consternation among other documentary producers that the 467-minute documentary should have been treated as a TV series rather than one long movie.
In the run-up to the Oscar nomination, O.J.: Made in America was screened at several film festivals and was treated as a film. Should a producer of a similar multi-part documentary take that route, it could appeal to the Academy’s documentary branch executive committee that it deserves consideration.
But overall, it appears the Academy has shut a loophole for multi-part documentaries to even be considered for a Best Docuentary Feature or Best Short Documentary nod.
However, for O.J.: Made in America director Ezra Edelman, no one can take his 2017 Oscar away and he can still bask in the glow of being awarded ESPN’s first Oscar.