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Indie Group Wins Battle of Ban
Fire up the tape machine. The screener ban is over.
A federal judge in New York on Friday ruled Hollywood chieftains can't stop their Oscar-coveting employees from sending out advance DVDs and videos of flicks to critics, tastemakers or whomever.
The Motion Picture Association of America, the lobbying group representing the major studios, vowed to appeal the preliminary injunction.
Producer Ted Hope (American Splendor), meanwhile, told Reuters he'd already spread the word that screeners were, in a phrase (ours), back on.
Indie filmmakers, including Hope, were plaintiffs in the court battle that sought to overturn the MPAA ban.
Producers for films such as Lost in Translation and Boys Don't Cry jointly filed suit November 24 as the Independent Coalition, arguing that the ban would freeze out the so-called little films during award-show season.
"Unlike the major studios--who can buy public awareness through expensive promotional campaigns--independent filmmakers rely on recognition through awards to attract talent, financing and box-office revenues," the coalition said.
MPAA president and CEO Jack Valenti maintained that the ban, instituted on September 30 and modified a month later to allow Academy members to receive screeners, was about stopping piracy, not playing favorites.
"We know, without dispute, that in the past screeners have been sources for pirated goods both domestically and overseas," Valenti said in a statement Friday. He says his group will appeal Friday's ruling within the next two weeks.
Indie insiders said piracy concerns were not lost on them. "I believe people who received screeners will be much more careful [now]. Before people looked at them as Christmas gifts, and there was nothing to tell them they weren't...They came up all nice and wrapped," said producer Jeff Levy-Hinte (Thirteen, Laurel Canyon), who testified on behalf of the suit this week.
The ban pertained to the MPAA's members--Disney, Sony, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.--plus DreamWorks and New Line, as well as any art-house division owned by one of the majors (which is just about every art-house division). Truly independent independents, such as Lions Gate Films, can, and have, been sending out screeners at will.
In addition to ticked-off indie types, the ban wasn't popular with A-listers or workaday critics. Jodie Foster and Sean Penn were among 400-plus actors and directors who signed open letters calling for the overturn of the policy. In Los Angeles, local film critics called off their annual, and influential, year-end awards in protest.
On Friday, L.A. Film Critics Association president Jean Oppenheimer said she was "surprised, but...very pleased" with the court ruling. She said it was too soon to say whether the organization would regroup and reestablish its awards.
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