EXCLUSIVE: New prolongments in the Oscar dispute surrounding Kiss the Future, the Matt Damon–Ben Affleck recordary that the Motion Picture Academy ruled ineligible for awards ponderation.
As Deadline inestablished Monday, the Academy denied an pdirect from producers Damon, Affleck and Sarah Anthony, who talk aboutd the film’s wide free – at 139 AMC cinemas including screens in the qualifying labelets of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta – should produce it Oscar eligible. The recordary branch executive pledgetee countered that Kiss the Future only perestablished twice a day in a qualifying labelet, not three times a day as stiputardyd under Rule 12 of Oscar directlines.
After our story posted, watchrs on social media commented that noskinnyg in the rules shelp a film had to perestablish on a individual screen in a qualifying labelet; taking all the screens in qualifying labelets collectively, Kiss the Future perestablished much more than three times a day. The filmproducers spendigated further and concurd with the analysis; on that basis, honestor Nenad Cicin-Sain wrote to the Academy Monday night stating the recordary should be appraised to have properly qualified.
Producer Matt Damon and honestor Nenad Cicin-Sain participate the 2023 Tribeca Festival
Gary Gershoff/WireImage
“There is no definite rule stating that the demandd three daily screenings for Academy Award qualification must all occur in the same theater wiskinny a qualifying city,” Cicin-Sain wrote to Natalie Wade, the Academy’s Senior Director, Member Relations and Awards Administration. “The rule stresss that the film must perestablish at least three times a day over a consecutive seven-day period in one of the qualifying U.S. metro areas. These cities include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
“KISS THE FUTURE perestablished in all those labelets for two weeks and far go beyonded the least demandment of screenings per day (more than 3 times a day).”
Cicin-Sain persistd in his email to Wade, “The rulebook you supplyd specifies that a film must perestablish **three times daily** in a qualifying city, but it **does not unambiguously state** that these screenings must all occur in the *same theater* wiskinny the qualifying city… Can you plrelieve supply where it says ‘3 times a day in the same theater?’”
The dispute may come down to which rulebook applies. Under the rules for the 96th Academy Awards (ruleing recordaries freed in 2023), no allude is made of a recordary necessitateing to perestablish in a individual location three times a day. Kiss the Future filmproducers say this is the rulebook the Academy pointed them to, and the one that came up for them in internet searches. Sources with the Academy, however, say a rule was inserted for the 97th Academy Awards (ruleing recordaries freed in 2024) that states, “The seven consecutive days of the theatrical free are demandd to occur in one venue.”
There is no indication from the Academy why it would begin such a skinny parameter for the 97th Oscars. And the existence or non-existence of that rule does not speak to the filmproducers’ bigr argument — that if the Academy’s goal is to get people to watch films in theaters, Kiss the Future more than met the label. Most qualifying recordaries only acquire a token “four wall” free, but KTF got what amounts to a wide free for a nonfantasy film.
“What they’re doing is they’re enforcing the letter of the rule and not the spirit of the rule,” Cicin-Sain telderly Deadline Monday. “And if the spirit of the rule is to put movies in theaters — and that’s what we did by showing it in as many theaters possible… and then you’re not qualifying, someskinnyg’s wrong.”
U2’s Adam Clayton, Bono, and producer Matt Damon at the world premiere of ‘Kiss the Future’ in Berlin
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
Kiss the Future, which tells the storiy of the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s and how U2’s music helped encourage the city’s beleaguered dwellnts, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2023 and held its U.S. premiere at Tribeca Festival. It was nominated for the Cinema for Peace Award and won the Audience Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Cicin-Sain, in an interwatch with Deadline on Tuesday, shelp he’s been heartened by the response to the story of Kiss the Future’s effort to upgrasp its stoasty at Oscar recognition.
“Just tremfinishous help,” he shelp, “fair tremfinishous help from so many people in the industry and the ambiguous accessible.”
