Variety Jumps The Gun...Again
Over on his blog, Eugene Hernandez has posted about Variety's pre-release of the winners of the recently concluded Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF), writing that his RSS reader had tipped him off "to a Variety story announcing the winners. Posted at 5:40 p.m. PT, the 109 word item named the two Target award winners nearly 3 hours before the filmmakers (and ceremony attendees) would find out."
This stinks on several levels.
Tipping filmmakers off to awards results before the ceremony takes place is in my opinion a high crime in our little circle of the universe. Several years ago I was at the awards ceremony of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, seated next to a competition filmmaker waiting for the awards to start when a journalist (we had all received the press release, but most of us kept our mouths shut) walked up to him and asked: "How does it feel to win the award?" The filmmaker, Pawel Pawlikowski who was attending with his wonderful film Last Resort, was confused and then slowly deflated as his excitement at winning $35,000 was somewhat dulled by someone's insensitivity. His joy was further diminished when before I could shut her up, the woman let it slip that his two leads had also won prizes. Had he not been a winner, it would have been even worse.
On another level, this portends badly for the future of our business. Where I or another blogger to blow off customarily agreed to rules like embargoes, we'd at the least get slapped on the wrist by being banned from an event or two or refused credentials. However, when a publication of the size and influence of Variety does it, what's the festival going to do? Ban Variety from covering its events?
It seems unlikely that this is simply a result of an overzealous editor trying to scoop the competition, especially since Eugene points out that Variety did the same thing at this year's Sundance fest. One has to wonder if this is the beginning of an online war of "scoops," although I find it odd that the awards at the LAFF would be the start of such an action (assuming Sundance was an aberration...a big assumption). I supposed it's possible they thought they could get away with it, since it's not like a major studio chief was fired or Cannes awards were announced, but then again, what do they have to gain, really? I mean, if it's a small fest, who do they really piss off and I doubt Even Variety would risk angering Cannes.
However, Variety's actions does a disservice to the festivals and the filmmakers. As Eugene points out, "knowing the announcement was already live hours before we'd be able to post it on indieWIRE deflated our enthusiasm for writing a full-length winners story, so we published the news in our Buzz section." As a result, the festival and filmmakers lose valuable ink.
Embargoes are a time honored practice of journalism that enable us to function as we do. Short of the occasional scoop granted to a particular publication or a true scoop by a publication, embargoes level the playing field and without them, it's a short hop and a jump to anarchy. Sure, scoops have their place, but a film festival awards story isn't the type of news that really needs to be scooped and all Variety succeeded in doing here was to annoy a festival, filmmakers and fellow journalists for the sake of a 109-word story about two filmmakers.
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