Oscar Nominees Pressured to Remove Free Online Versions of Their Films

Last week, all five of the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short were made available, for free and online, either as a part of the normal video release for the films in question or as part of an Oscar campaign to raise awareness of the films. Within days, Shorts International, who sell the nominated films via their ShortsHD program online and via set top boxes and who are screening a limited theatrical engagement aimed at creating buzz around the films, threatened the studios in question that the availability of the videos was negatively impacting their box office take and that some theaters were threatening to pull the shorts program from their screens unless the free versions were removed, reports Deadline. One of the films--Showtime's Fresh Guacamole, which has been on the network's YouTube page for almost a year--remains online, with the director rejecting the idea that free, online distribution has a negative impact on short films. He told Deadline that short filmmakers have limited opportunities to make money from having their work screened theatrically because "it's difficult to tell people to go to a theater to watch a 1-2 minute film. [But] I can make ideas and put them out there, and they can influence people and build a reputation that brings more opportunities to make more films." The other films, which had previously been posted to their respective studios' YouTube pages as well, have been either removed or marked private following the February 14 letter.