Academy allows The Reader's four producers in Oscar race
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is bending its rules to allow THE READER's four producers - including late filmmakers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack - to contend for a Best Picture Oscar.
The Kate Winslet movie, nominated for five Oscars this year (09), was the final project for Pollack and Minghella, who both died before the film wrapped.
But when the nominations were announced last Thursday (22Jan), the Best Picture ballot read "to be determined" in place of a list of the film's four producers - because the Academy doesn't recognise more than three per film for the gong, after a crew of producers crowded the stage when Shakespeare in Love won in 1998.
After protests over the exclusion of producers from 2006's Little Miss Sunshine, the organisation revised the restriction to allow more than three producers under "a rare and extraordinary circumstance".
And after a meeting the executive committee decided that The Reader's Minghella and Pollack will be eligible for the honour, alongside Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris.
The Academy says in a statement released Tuesday (27Jan09): "In the end, the committee determined that the circumstances of 'The Reader' - in which the two original producers (Minghella and Pollack) both died partway through the process - met its definition of 'rare and extraordinary' and that all four submitted individuals should be named as nominees."
Minghella died in March (08) following an operation on his neck, while Pollack passed away in May (08) after a short battle with stomach cancer.
