The Big One

On August 3 Jim and I made a friendly wager about what F9/11’s chances at the upcoming Academy Awards.  I predicted that not only would the film get nominated for Best Picture, it would win.  Jim, and most readers of the site, thought I was nuts.  Jim wrote that I was “huffing paint thinner.”

My thinking has been that simply winning another Best Documentary film isn’t big enough, and neither Moore nor Harvey Weinstein want to see this film wasted on an award that Moore has already won.  Weinstein is a master at promoting films for specific Oscars.  (Shakespeare In Love is a textbook example.) There is going to be an unbelievable degree of poiliticking on the part of Weinstein to get this film to win.

Why do I bring this up now?  Because I’ve been partially vindicated already.

Michael Moore says he won’t submit “Fahrenheit 9/11” for consideration as best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. Instead, he’s going for the bigger prize of best picture.

Moore’s critically acclaimed film slams President Bush’s war on terror as ill-advised and corrupt. The movie has cheered Democrats but enraged the president’s supporters, who booed Moore when he visited the Republican National Convention last week.

“For me the real Oscar would be Bush’s defeat on Nov. 2,” Moore told The Associated Press during a phone interview Monday from New York.

The $6 million film has become a sensation that collected $117.3 million in the United States this summer, despite an early roadblock when the Walt Disney Co. banned its Miramax Films division from distributing the political hot-potato.

In the midst of the presidential campaign, Moore’s announcement is a strategic move for his Oscar campaign. Documentaries and animated films have their own categories, but the conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that those niche awards can limit a film’s appeal in the overall best picture class.

Moore said he and his producing partner, Harvey Weinstein, agreed “Fahrenheit 9/11” would stand a better chance if they focused solely on the top Oscar.

When the film wins Best Picture, the line to publicly kiss my ass will form right behind Jim.  Pucker up. :)