October 12, 2007
Al Gore's Oscar
In the wake of Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, lots of news outlets have been mentioning other things he won.
Reuters: ...winning an Oscar in 2007 for his documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth."
Times of India: ...and earned Gore an Oscar.
Times of London: Mr Gore had already picked up an Oscar for his climate change documentary...
Fox News: Al Gore now has a Nobel Prize, an Oscar and an Emmy.
CNN Money: The former vice president, Oscar-winner and now Nobel Peace Prize recipient...
Telegraph: Just after Gore won an Oscar for his global warming documentary...
And so on. But.
Al Gore did not win an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth. Davis Guggenheim won an Oscar for his film about Al Gore. Just because he invited Gore up to the podium to make an acceptance speech doesn't mean Gore won anything. (At least that night.) The award goes to the director of the winning film, not to its subject. If the latter were the case, Michelangelo, Albert Schweitzer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Frost, and Robert S. McNamara would have Oscars. And you know who else would have an Oscar?
That's right. Hitler.
Posted by mike, October 12, 2007 10:19 AMTechnically speaking, Davis Guggenheim didn't win the Oscar either, the film itself did. Guggenheim accepted the Oscar for the film...
Or maybe it's that Guggenheim won the Oscar, but not the Academy Award, as symbolized by the Oscar. Guggenheim possesses the Oscar statuette (it's debatable whether he even owns it, of course due to the sales rules around the statuettes), but the film is the true recipient of the award.
Posted by: Travis at October 12, 2007 12:03 PMNo, Davis Guggenheim is the true recipient of the award. According to the Academy's rules on that category:
"Award recipient(s) should be the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. To this end, receipt of a statuette shall be limited to two persons, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit."
I guess you could read that as saying Guggenheim merely received an award on behalf of his film, but I'm pretty sure that the Academy considers him an Oscar winner. I've emailed the Margaret Herrick Memorial Library for confirmation; I'll let you know when/if I hear back from them.
Posted by: goatdog at October 12, 2007 6:01 PMI agree that Gore did not win the award, but he is the only reason that mediocre film won anything. Guggenheim should give his award to Gore.
Posted by: Shawn at October 14, 2007 9:42 PMThe Academy librarians work fast:
"The Documentary awards, like the Animated Feature Film, Short Film, and Best Picture awards, recognize the achievement in a film as a whole, rather than individual achievement in a specific craft area. In each category, the Academy Awards rules specify which persons shall be eligible to receive an Academy Award in the event their submitted film should win... The names of those eligible to receive Academy Awards are specified on the entry form, and appear in the nomination... In the case of "An Inconvenient Truth", Davis Guggenheim was designated as the person eligible to receive an award, and the Documentary Feature award was presented to him."
Well then. That first paragraph echoes what Travis said, in that the film gets the award and the humans behind the film get to hold the statues.
Posted by: goatdog at October 15, 2007 7:48 PMDoes Global Warming, then, actually win the Nobel Prize? :-P
Posted by: shane at October 17, 2007 12:56 PM