"The Hurt Locker," when compared historically to previous Oscar-winning films, has done everything up to this point it needs to do to take home the top prize at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards on March 7. It's won all the right pre-Oscar awards, it's gotten the critics on its side, it covers a controversial war. All it needed to do was sit back and wait. Instead, it got antsy. To make a football analogy: It might have been time to play conservative, start running the ball, and try to run out the clock. Instead, "The Hurt Locker"'s co-producer, Nicolas Chartier, threw up a Hail-Mary pass -- and it was promptly intercepted.
In a inappropriate email sent out to academy members, obtained by the LA Times' Gold Derby blog, Chartier came awfully close to what may be described as begging the voting members to support his film over its Best Picture competition. (The Academy explicitly bans directly campaigning to voters.) Though he doesn't come right out and say "vote for my film instead of 'Avatar,' by asking Academy members to ask "friends who vote for the Oscars" to support "The Hurt Locker" over "a $500M" film -- it's a safe bet Chartier wasn't referring to "An Education."
Chartier's email to Academy members reads as follows:
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!
I'm sure you know plenty of people you've worked with who are academy members whether a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!
best regards,
Nicolas Chartier Voltage Pictures
Considering this gaffe, perhaps it's ironic his "Hurt Locker' colleagues had successfully petitioned to allow him to be a fourth accepting producer on the Kodak Theater stage if the movie should win the Best Picture award. (This is an exception to the longstanding "three producer rule," that only allows for three filmmakers to say their "thank yous" on the Academy Awards broadcast.). It didn't take long for Chartier to issue a follow-up apology email:
Last week I emailed you regarding the Oscars next week, generally, and "The Hurt Locker," in particular. My email to you was out of line and not in the spirit of the celebration of cinema that this acknowledgement is. I was even more wrong, both personally and professionally, to ask for your help in encouraging others to vote for the film and to comment on another movie. As passionate as I am about the film we made, this was an extremely inappropriate email to send, and something that the Academy strongly disapproves of in the rules.
My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken the time to read the rules.
I am emailing each person this very same statement asking to retract my previous email and requesting that you please disregard it.
I truly apologize to anyone I have offended.
Sincerely yours,
best regards, Nicolas Chartier
Voltage Pictures, LLC
The studio that released "The Hurt Locker," Summit Entertainment, responded as well to the controversy in a statement saying, "An enthusiastic and naive young producer made a mistake. When we found out, we asked him to stop immediately and let the Academy know and he is making amends."
Other than some Academy instituted penalties -- such as losing tickets to the ceremony on March 7 -- the real question regarding possible repercussion for "The Hurt Locker" is if this display will cost it votes based on negative publicity. Final Oscar ballots are due on Tuesday, March 2. For this controversy to happen so close to the deadline, in what was already considered a close race, it could wind up being devastating for "The Hurt Locker." "The Hurt Locker" has one thing working it its favor: as The Wrap blog points out, there won't be any official ruling on the matter until after voting closes on Tuesday.
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