Tom Oyer is currently in his seventh season working as Awards Manager at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he manages all aspects of the documentary and short film categories. In his brief tenure on the job, Oyer has become an expert on all things nonfiction. Meaning, he's the one to call if you have a question about AMPAS documentary rules, qualifying requirements, submissions, voting, membership and outreach. In addition to the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject categories, Oyer directly handles the Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film and Makeup
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The allocation of funds is tricky for documentary filmmakers, but it's particularly difficult to determine what monies should be set aside to promote a film. If the filmmaker is also the producer—or the producers are individuals, as opposed to a corporate entity—hiring a PR agency to pitch the concepts and themes of the film to the media and opinion-makers, can be a difficult and expensive decision to make. A successful public relations strategy that works across media platforms can have significant professional implications for the filmmaker, but there are caveats and contingencies that may
The days get shorter, the air gets crisper, the foliage turns red, screeners and invitations start pouring in, and your inbox is jammed with "For Your Consideration" e-mails. Awards Season has arrived. This year, a staggering 124 documentary feature films were submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration. In early December, this number was winnowed down to a short list of 15. As if making a documentary were not hard enough, upon reaching completion and release, filmmakers have to rely on a separate skill set to promote their work and rise above the fray
It is challenging for female cinematographers. No woman has ever been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and very few have been invited to become members of the American Society of Cinematographers. When you are a person of color, the challenge is even more difficult. Connecting to people in a way that they will see you for your talent as well as your gender and ethnicity is a continuous battle. People maintain a certain comfort level working with those they know. The objective becomes finding that commonality—discovering a network of people who will support your work, and
Navigating ethical challenges comes with the territory when making documentary films. I am endlessly fascinated by the ethical choices we face, perhaps because ethics is so often about nuance, rather than binary black-and-white options. This is, in part, why I make films—to get at the truths most often found in the gray areas of life, which documentary is so well-suited to explore. This column delves into some of the ethical conundrums I faced while directing One Lucky Elephant, a feature doc that traces circus producer David Balding's nine-year quest to find a good home for Flora, his
The School of Visual Arts in New York City launched its Masters of Fine Arts in Social Documentary in 2009. Now in its seventh year, the program, which was founded by filmmaker Maro Chermayeff , offers students a place to really focus on documentary right in the heart of New York City. Originally established in 1947 as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School by educator Silas Rhodes and Tarzan illustrator Burne Horgath, the name was changed to the School of Visual Arts in 1956. This reflected the guiding philosophy—and evolving curriculum—that art encompasses a lot more than technique alone
Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back (1967) By DA Pennebaker Released by The Criterion Collection, November 2015 Blu-Ray/2-DVD Box Set Dont Look Back tied Man of Aron and Nanook of the North for eighth place among the greatest documentaries ever made in a 2014 Sight & Sound directors' poll. But all was not rosy back in 1967, when the film was first released. Film critic Ward Marsh, writing for The Plain Dealer, noted, "This film is a cheap, in part a dirty, movie, if it is a movie at all. It is a chopped-up 'story' of Bob Dylan's stormy visit to England. It is certainly not for moviegoers who bathe and
Transplants to Los Angeles in the early '90s may have had little-to-no exposure to its mayor, Tom Bradley, until his televised appearance during the Rodney King Riots of 1992. If that is the case, it would be an unfair moment from which to judge a man who served a record five terms as the mayor of the City of Angels. What we saw on the television screen that night was a man who looked as if he was being held hostage. Glassy-eyed, his speech stilted, he seemed at a loss to find a balm for his adopted city. He understood the community's outrage and frustration, and it must have seemed like the
Dear Readers, It’s Awards Season, that high-stakes, high-rolling extravaganza that runs from the Toronto International Film Festival to Oscars night, and for documentary makers it’s an exhausting, exhilarating process to hit the campaign trail for such a low-odds/high-yield prize. Once the film is qualified, then the race begins: First to the Short List, next to the Nominees and, finally, to the Winners, bringing down the curtain on a bi-coastal hobnobbing marathon. Along the road to Oscar, there are other high-profile honors—the Independent Sprits, the Gothams, the IDAs, the critics’ awards
Dear IDA Community, This past year, it's been hard to miss stories about our world facing up to diversity and equality problems. Thanks to a number of ambitious studies that are hard to refute–and technology tools that make them easy to share–we now see the make-up of our unconscious bias in stark numbers. I believe most of us are deeply struck by the imbalances. They reflect neither the world we live in, nor the world we want to live in. I recently faced my own unconscious bias when programming documentaries for a screening series I host in Los Angeles at ArcLight Cinemas. In late 2014, I