GUESTBLOG: Another Way Ghanaian Filmmakers Can Win An Oscar® – My Opinion

In my previous article on “How Ghanaian Filmmaker can win an Oscar®: My Opinion” I talked about the things Ghanaian filmmakers needed to do to ensure a nomination at the Academy Awards® and eventually win an Oscar®. My main focus was on the Foreign Language Category which I believe is much easier for a film from this part of the world to enter into.

The Oscar® (Academy Award®) Statuette

I mentioned the following as requirements for a Ghanaian film to get a nomination in the Foreign Language Category; the film must be in a foreign language (native Ghanaian language), have an Original Ghanaian story, must be extensively researched, must be of high technical quality and must be creative and innovative. Each country is required to submit one film through an organisation, jury or committee made up of artists and or craftspeople in the field of motion pictures approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) per the 90^th Academy Rule thirteen (13), special rules for the Foreign Language Category.

I did not mention in the last article which organization in Ghana had the approval from the Academy to screen films for the above category. My checks revealed that previously it was the Ghana Academy of Film and Television Arts (GAFTA) that had the Oscar accreditation for Ghana but currently it’s the Ghana Oscar Committee made up of individuals from film, media and television such as Leila Djansi, Anthony Tomety, David Dontor, Ameyaw Debrah, George Bosompim etc. This means that, if a filmmaker in Ghana wants to submit a film in the Foreign Language Category that film must first pass through the Ghana Oscar Committee for approval.

Aside the Foreign Language Category, there are three other categories Ghanaian filmmakers especially young filmmakers can take advantage of they include; the Live Action Short Film, the Animated Short Film and the Documentary Short Subject Categories.  These are films per the 90^th Academy Short film definition “A short film is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.”

The current generation of young filmmakers shoot quite a lot of short films of a wide variety of genres such as animations, documentaries, fiction, experimental, alternative, science fiction etc. based on several subject matters and which are of high technical and aesthetic quality. Their films compete in film festivals both local and international and some have gone ahead to get nominations and others winning accolades. Some examples include Peter Sedufia whose film, The Traveller won the Special Jury Prize at FESPACO in 2015, Francis Brown’s animation Agorkoli: The cause of Hogbetsotso was shortlisted at the 2015 Students Academy Awards, Akosua Adoma’s film Ananse won the Best Short Film at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards (AMMAs), Jordi Owusu & Joseph Akiwumi’s film Black and Gold won the Best Documentary Short Film at Afrinolly Short Film Festival in 2013, Comfort Arthur’s Animation Short Black Barbie was nominated at the 2017 African Movie Academy Awards (AMMAs), Peter Owusu’s film Down Side Up and Bismak Aryee’s film Nubuke won Best Student Fiction Film and Best Student Documentary respectively at the 2017 FESPACO the list goes on.

There are three ways by which a short film can qualify for entry into the competition in all the three categories stated above. The first is by;

(i) The normal procedure where a film must be publicly exhibited in a commercial theatre for at least seven consecutive days to a paying audience in Los Angeles County.

(ii) The second is that a film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival as specified in the Academy’s Short Film Qualifying Festival List which is available at www.oscar.org or may be obtained at the Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

(iii) The third and final way is for a film to have won a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award at the previous Student Academy Awards competition in Animation, Narrative, Alternative and Foreign Film Category.

In my opinion, the last two eligibility procedures are much easier for films from Ghana to be considered for the Academy Award in these categories considering the fact that films from Ghana can compete and are competing with other films around the world. So filmmakers should send entries to film festivals which are part of the Academy’s Short Film Qualifying Festival List to increase their chances of qualifying for an Oscar.

Student filmmakers should also consider sending their films to the Student’s Academy Awards. Unfortunately, only film schools which are members of CILECT, the international organization of film schools and academies qualify to enter and NAFTI is the only film school in Ghana which is a member.

Below are the entry rules and guidelines per the 90^th Academy Awards Rules for all three categories mentioned above.

90TH ACADEMY AWARDS RULES

RULE NINETEEN

SPECIAL RULES FOR THE

SHORT FILM AWARDS

1. DEFINITIONS
2. A short film is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.
3. This excludes from consideration such works as:
4. previews and advertising films
5. sequences from feature-length films, such as credit sequences
6. unaired episodes of established TV series
7. unsold TV series pilots

1. CATEGORIES

An award shall be given for the best achievement in each of two categories.

1. Animated Short Film

An animated film is defined as a motion picture in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, and usually falls into one of the two general fields of animation: narrative or abstract. Some of the techniques of animating films include but are not limited to hand-drawn animation, computer animation, stop-motion, clay animation, pixilation, cutout animation, pinscreen, camera multiple pass imagery, kaleidoscopic effects created frame-by-frame, and drawing on the film frame itself. Motion capture and real-time puppetry are not by themselves animation techniques. An animated short film has a running time of 40 minutes or less. An animated feature film has a running time of more than 40 minutes. In an animated film, animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time. In addition, a narrative animated film must have a significant number of the major characters animated. If the picture is created in a cinematic style that could be mistaken for live action, the filmmaker(s) must also submit information supporting how and why the picture is substantially a work of animation rather than live action. Documentary short subjects that are animated may be submitted in either the Animated Short Film category or the Documentary Short Subject category, but not both.

1. Live Action Short Film

A live action film uses imagery created primarily through practical photographic techniques used to capture physical actors, props, sets, and locations. Documentary short subjects will not be accepted in the live action category. If the picture is created in the cinematic style of a documentary, the filmmaker(s) must also submit information supporting how and why the picture is substantially a work of fiction rather than a documentary.

III. ELIGIBILITY

2017. To be eligible for award consideration for the 90th Awards year, a short film must fulfill one of the following qualifying criteria between October 1, 2016, and September 30, 2017. This qualification must take place within two years of the film’s completion date:
2018. The picture must have been publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County for a run of at least seven consecutive days with at least one screening a day prior to public exhibition or distribution by any nontheatrical means. The picture also must appear in the theater listings along with the appropriate dates and screening time(s).

All eligible motion pictures must be publicly exhibited by means of 35mm or 70mm film, or in a 24- or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels, source image format conforming to ST 428-1:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master

– Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000); and image and sound file formats suitable for exhibition in commercial Digital Cinema sites.

The audio in a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is typically 5.1 or 7.1 channels of discrete audio. The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Center, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment).

The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with ST 428-2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master

– Audio Characteristics and ST 428-3:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling.

Student films cannot qualify with a theatrical release.

OR

2. The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified in the Short Film Qualifying Festival List, regardless of any prior public exhibition or distribution by nontheatrical means. Proof of the award must be submitted with the entry. The Short Film Qualifying Festival List is available at www.oscars.org or may be obtained from the Academy.

OR

3. The film must have won a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award in the Academy’s 2017 Student Academy Awards competition in the Animation, Narrative, Alternative or Foreign Film category.

All films must be submitted in a standard theatrical exhibition aspect ratio, in formats currently accepted by the Academy (see Paragraph III.A.1 above), no matter which other formats may have been used during their theatrical run or festival screening. Producers may provide screenings of films in specialized formats for Academy members, but attendance at such screenings is not required for voting purposes.

1. A short film qualifying under Paragraph III.A.1 above may not be exhibited publicly or distributed anywhere in any nontheatrical form until after its Los Angeles theatrical release. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to:

• Broadcast and cable television
• PPV/VOD
• DVD distribution
• Internet transmission

Excerpts of the film totalling no more than ten percent of its running time are exempted from this rule.

Films qualifying under Paragraph III.A.2 or III.A.3 above are exempted from this rule.

1. SUBMISSION
2. Short films must be submitted to the Academy on 35mm or 70mm film, or as a DCP formatted according to the digital qualification standards described in Paragraph III.A.1 above, along with the digital content delivery of the film. Encrypted films will not be accepted. Formats requiring special technical presentation that meet the technical specifications above will be given consideration if made available for Academy voting screenings in Los Angeles County.
3. The print or DCP of the short film submitted for Academy Awards consideration must be identical in content and length to the print or DCP that qualified.
4. Dialogue or narration must be substantially in English or the film must have English-language subtitles.
5. Prints or DCPs should be marked “Short Film Entry” and shipped prepaid to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Prints or DCPs submitted will be retained by the Academy throughout the voting process.
6. The deadline for receiving all required entry materials, including the film print or DCP and the digital content delivery of the film, is 5 p.m. PT on Monday, October 2, 2017. Foreign entries also must comply with this rule.
7. If a short film advances to the second round of voting, an additional film print or DCP must be received by the Academy by 5 p.m. PT five business days after the shortlist is announced. If a DCP was submitted, a second DCP must be sent to the Academy. If a film print was submitted, a second print of the picture must be sent to the Academy. In addition, five Region 0/NTSC standard definition DVDs of the shortlisted film must be submitted for Academy records. Shortlisted films must have the necessary clearances for commercial theatrical exhibition. Festival clearances are not sufficient.
8. The Academy will retain for its archives one film print or DCP and DVDs of every short film receiving a nomination for final balloting. The Academy will have the right, but not the obligation, to create a preservation copy of the picture at its own expense. All pictures that are not nominated will be returned at Academy expense. By submitting a film, the filmmaker agrees that the Academy has the right to make copies and distribute them for voting purposes only.
9. The recipient of the Oscar will be the individual most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film. In the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded. However, no more than two awards will be given to a winning production. Companies or organized groups shall not receive nominations or awards.
10. No short film may be submitted more than once for Academy Awards consideration. A short film must be submitted in the same Awards year in which it qualifies.

1. VOTING
2. Excellence of the entries shall be judged on the basis of originality, entertainment and production quality without regard to cost of production or subject matter.
3. A reviewing process will take place, in which volunteer active and life members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch will view all motion pictures entered and mark all entries 10, 9, 8, 7, or 6 with the guidelines of 10 (excellent), 8 (good), 7 (fair) or 6 (poor). In each category not more than ten pictures receiving the highest average numerical scores above 7.5 shall be considered further. In the event that fewer than six pictures receive average numerical scores above 7.5, those with the next highest average numerical scores shall be included until six pictures are selected.
4. To determine nominations, all entries selected during the reviewing process shall be screened by the Branch Nominating Committee consisting of all active and life members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch. A member must see all shortlisted films for the ballot to be counted. Those members of the branch who participated in the reviewing process and who viewed all of the selected pictures, in either or both categories, will receive ballots. The running order of the films in each category shall be organized by aspect ratio. Members shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five pictures in each category. The five pictures receiving the highest number of votes in each category shall become the nominations for final voting for the Short Film awards.
5. Final voting for the Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film awards shall be restricted to active and life members of the Academy who have viewed all of the nominated short films. Academy members may vote for only one film in each of the two categories.
6. ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY RESTRICTIONS

Only short films that receive nominations or Academy Awards may refer to their Academy endorsements in advertising and publicity materials. A film that is selected for the shortlist may not identify itself as an “Academy Award finalist,” “Academy Award shortlist film” or the like except when it appears in a program consisting entirely of such films.

RULE ELEVEN

SPECIAL RULES FOR THE

DOCUMENTARY AWARDS

1. DEFINITION

An eligible documentary film is defined as a theatrically released nonfiction motion picture dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects. It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact and not on fiction.

1. CATEGORIES

The Documentary awards are divided into two categories:

1. Documentary Feature – motion pictures with a running time of more than 40 minutes, and
2. Documentary Short Subject – motion pictures with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.

III. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. Eligibility
2. To be eligible for 90th Academy Awards consideration, a documentary feature must complete both a seven-day theatrical release in Los Angeles County and a seven-day theatrical release in the City of New York during the eligibility period.
3. The eligibility period for documentary features begins on January 1, 2017, and ends on December 31, 2017. For films being released between January 1 and August 20, the completed online submission form and all other entry materials, including the digital content delivery and DVDs, must be received by the Academy no later than 30 days after the end of the qualifying theatrical releases. For films being released between August 21 and December 31, the completed online submission form, letters from the theaters confirming that the film will be satisfying the release requirements, and all other entry materials, including the digital content delivery and DVDs, must be received by the Academy by 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, September 20, 2017. Those entrants submitting entry materials by September 20 with a planned theatrical release before the end of the calendar year, but which will not have a locked picture by the September 20 deadline, may request by September 13 an extension for the DVD submission and digital content delivery only. Extensions will be granted only to October 20, and only if the picture is not locked. There will be no exceptions.
4. The theatrical releases in both cities must take place in the same eligibility period and within two years of the motion picture’s completion date. A theatrical release in only one of the qualifying cities disqualifies a picture from Academy Awards contention in the Documentary Feature category in any year. Documentaries submitted for consideration for the 90th Academy Awards in any category will not be eligible for consideration in subsequent Awards years in any category. The picture must be submitted in the same Awards year in which it first qualifies.
5. The picture must be exhibited using 35mm or 70mm film, or in a 24- or 48-frame progressive scan

Digital Cinema format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels, source image format conforming to ST 428-1:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000); and image and sound file formats suitable for exhibition in commercial Digital Cinema sites.

The audio in a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is typically 5.1 or 7.1 channels of discrete audio. The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Center, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment).

The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with ST 428-2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Characteristics and ST 428-3:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling.

5. Screenings during the theatrical release must occur at least four times daily and must begin between noon and 10 p.m., with at least one screening beginning daily between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The motion picture must be exhibited for paid admission, and must be advertised during each of its qualifying theatrical releases in at least one of these major newspapers in each city: The New York Times, Time Out New York or The Village Voice (New York); Los Angeles Times or LA Weekly (Los Angeles). The film must have a movie critic review in either The New York Times and/or Los Angeles Times. A television critic review will not be accepted. Filmmakers who are unable to obtain a review may appeal for an exemption. Advertisements must have minimum dimensions of one inch by two inches and must include the theater, film title, and the dates and screening times of the qualifying exhibitions. A listing in the theater grid will not meet this requirement. Advertising must begin on the first day of the theatrical release.
6. Works that are essentially promotional or instructional are not eligible, nor are works that are

essentially unfiltered records of performances.

7. Only individual documentary works are eligible. This excludes from consideration:

• multi-part or limited series,
• episodes extracted from a larger series,
• segments taken from a single “composite” program, and
• alternate versions of ineligible works.

8. The significant dialogue or narration must be in English, or the entry must have English-language subtitles.
9. Films that, in any version, receive a nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution before their first qualifying theatrical release, will not be eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to:

• Broadcast and cable television
• PPV/VOD
• DVD distribution
• Internet transmission

Ten minutes or ten percent of the running time of a film, whichever is shorter, is allowed to be shown in a nontheatrical medium prior to the film’s theatrical release.

1. Submission
2. The producer or distributor of the film must register online at the Academy’s Awards Submissions site, submissions.oscars.org, and inform the Academy of the details of the film’s theatrical release before the release begins.
3. Entrants (including non-U.S. entrants) must complete the online submission form and submit to the Academy the digital content delivery of the film and 100 DVDs of the entry, without trailers or other extraneous material, capable of playing on Region 0/NTSC standard definition DVD players, and all other required material and required signatures by 5 p.m. PT on the dates listed in Paragraph III.A.2 above. DVDs must be in individual paper sleeves and must include the title, running time and director name only. No artwork, contact information, company name or film logo is acceptable on the DVD labels or sleeves.

1. Voting
2. Documentaries will be viewed by members of the Documentary Branch, which will use a preferential voting system to produce a shortlist of 15 films. Five nominees will then be chosen by a second round of balloting, again using a preferential voting system.
3. Final voting shall be restricted to active and life members of the Academy who have viewed all of the nominated documentaries.

1. Copies Required

The filmmakers of the shortlisted documentaries must submit either two 35mm or 70mm film prints or two DCP versions of the documentary after the shortlist is announced. Following the nominations screenings, one copy of the work shall become the property of the Academy Film Archive. By submitting a film, the filmmaker agrees that the Academy has the right to make copies and distribute them for voting purposes only.

1. Nominees and Award Recipients
2. The nominee(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.
3. All individuals with a “producer” or “produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision.
4. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. On occasion, a third statuette may be awarded when there are three primary and essential contributors.

1. Advertising and Publicity Restrictions

Only documentaries that receive nominations or Academy Awards may refer to their Academy endorsements in advertising and publicity materials. A film that is selected for the shortlist may not identify itself as an “Academy Award finalist,” “Academy Award shortlist film” or the like except when it appears in a program consisting entirely of such films.

1. Other Rules
2. Documentaries submitted in this category may also qualify for awards in other categories if they meet the specified requirements.
3. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee shall resolve all questions of eligibility and rules.

1. DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

1. Eligibility
2. To be eligible for 90th Academy Awards consideration, a documentary short subject must complete a seven-day commercial run in a theater in either Los Angeles County or the City of New York, during the eligibility period and prior to public exhibition or distribution by any nontheatrical means.

OR

2. The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified in the Documentary Short Subject Qualifying Festival List, regardless of any prior public exhibition or distribution by nontheatrical means. Proof of the award must be submitted with the entry. The Documentary Short Subject Qualifying Festival List is available at www.oscars.org or may be obtained from the Academy.

OR

3. The film must have won a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award in the Academy’s 2017 Student Academy Awards competition in the Documentary category.
4. The eligibility period for documentary short subjects begins on September 1, 2016, and ends on August 31, 2017. The completed online submission form and all other entry materials, including the digital content delivery and DVDs, must be received by the Academy no later than 30 days after the end of the qualifying run or the festival award win. No submissions will be accepted after 5 p.m. PT on Friday, September 1, 2017.
5. The qualifying run or festival award win must take place within two years of the motion picture’s completion date. The picture must be submitted in the same Awards year in which it first qualifies. Documentaries submitted for the 90th Academy Awards in any category will not be eligible for consideration in subsequent Awards years in any category.
6. The picture must be exhibited using 35mm or 70mm film, or in a 24- or 48-frame progressive scan Digital Cinema format with a minimum projector resolution of 2048 by 1080 pixels, source image format conforming to ST 428-1:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Image Characteristics; image compression (if used) conforming to ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000); and image and sound file formats suitable for exhibition in commercial Digital Cinema sites.

The audio in a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is typically 5.1 or 7.1 channels of discrete audio. The minimum for a non-mono configuration of the audio shall be three channels as Left, Center, Right (a Left/Right configuration is not acceptable in a theatrical environment).

The audio data shall be formatted in conformance with ST 428-2:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Characteristics and ST 428-3:2006 D-Cinema Distribution Master – Audio Channel Mapping and Channel Labeling.

7. Screenings in the qualifying run must occur at least once daily and begin between noon and 10 p.m. The motion picture must be exhibited for paid admission, and must be advertised during its run in a major newspaper: The New York Times, Time Out New York or The Village Voice (New York); Los Angeles Times or LA Weekly (Los Angeles). Advertisements must have minimum dimensions of one inch by two inches and must include the theater, film title, and the dates and screening times of the qualifying exhibition. A listing in the theater grid will not meet this requirement. Advertising must begin on the first day of the qualifying run.
8. Works that are essentially promotional or instructional are not eligible, nor are works that are essentially unfiltered records of performances.
9. Only individual documentary works are eligible. This excludes from consideration such works as:

• multi-part or limited series,
• episodes extracted from a larger series,
• segments taken from a single “composite” program,
• alternate versions of ineligible works, and
• documentary short subjects created from materials substantially taken from or cut down from completed, publicly exhibited feature-length documentaries.

10. The significant dialogue or narration must be in English, or the entry must have English-language subtitles.
11. Films that, in any version, receive a nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution before their qualifying run as defined in Paragraph IV.A.1 above will not be eligible for Academy Awards consideration. Nontheatrical public exhibition or distribution includes but is not limited to:

• Broadcast and cable television
• PPV/VOD
• DVD distribution
• Internet transmission

Up to ten percent of the running time of a film is allowed to be shown in a nontheatrical medium prior to the film’s commercial qualifying run.

Films qualifying under Paragraph IV.A.2 or IV.A.3 above are exempted from this rule.

1. Submission
2. The producer or distributor of the film must register online at the Academy’s Awards Submissions site, submissions.oscars.org, and inform the Academy of the details of the film’s qualifying run before the run begins.
3. Entrants (including non-U.S. entrants) must complete the online submission form and submit to the Academy the digital content delivery of the film and 100 DVDs of the entry, without trailers or other extraneous material, capable of playing on Region 0/NTSC standard definition DVD players, and all other required materials and required signatures by 5 p.m. PT on the dates listed in Paragraph IV.A.4 above. DVDs must be in individual paper sleeves and must include the title, running time and director name only. No artwork, contact information, company name or film logo is acceptable on the DVD labels or sleeves.

1. Voting

1. Documentaries will be viewed by members of the Documentary Branch, who will use a preferential voting system to produce a ten-picture shortlist. Five nominees will then be chosen by a second round of balloting, using a preferential voting system.
2. Final voting shall be restricted to active and life Academy members who have viewed all of the nominated documentaries.

1. Copies Required

The filmmakers of the shortlisted documentaries must submit either two 35mm or 70mm film prints or two DCP versions of the documentary after the shortlist is announced. Following the nominations screenings, one copy of the work shall become the property of the Academy Film Archive. By submitting a film, the filmmaker agrees that the Academy has the right to make copies and distribute them for voting purposes only.

1. Nominees and Award Recipients

1. The nominee(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.

2. All individuals with a “producer” or “produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted. The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producer, if any, is eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the Committee’s decision.

1. Advertising and Publicity Restrictions

Only documentaries that receive nominations or Academy Awards may refer to their Academy endorsements in advertising and publicity materials. A film that is selected for the shortlist may not identify itself as an “Academy Award finalist,” “Academy Award shortlist film” or the like except when it appears in a program consisting entirely of such films.

1. Other Rules

The Documentary Branch Executive Committee shall resolve all questions of eligibility and rules.

For more information on the Academy Awards entry and eligibility rules log on to www.oscars.org