Petteri Pyyny
14 Oct 2003 16:17
The west coast branch of Writers Guild of America has officially announced that it opposes the MPAA's decision to ban all Oscar screeners.
According to the president of WGA West, screeners have become an important method for small films to gain audience. And now MPAA's plan to ban screeners -- that are preview DVD or VHS versions of movies that haven't been officially released on DVD/VHS for retail channels yet -- in Academy Awards' promotions "tilts the playing field from small films to large".
Last week, several high-profile Hollywood authors signed a petition in opposition to the ban of screeners. MPAA's official opinion is that by banning screeners, they could be able to cut down the piracy, but many industry players think that only reason for such ban is to shift the power in Oscar votes from small, "semi-indie" films produced by major studios' subsdiaries, to large movie productions that typically gain financially more (not relatively, but in hard cash) from Oscar wins.
Source: WashingtonPost.com