Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

Politically charged “Best Documentary” winners and nominees in the past few years have included Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth and Michael Moore’s Sicko (Moore did not submit Fahrenheit 9/11 for Academy consideration or it most certainly would have been nominated and probably would have won).

Dinesh D’Souza‘s 2016: Obama’s America is the 2nd highest grossing political documentary of all time (behind Fahrenheit) and was submitted for consideration, but predictably the Academy didn’t deem it to be worth a nod:

Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of Schindler’s List, is claiming political bias because a documentary movie he produced this year isn’t up for an Oscar, even though that film, 2016: Obama’s America, made more money at the box office than the combined earning of the 15 films the Academy deemed eligible.

2016, a negative take on President Barack Obama co-written and directed by author Dinesh D’Souza, earned $33.4 million at the domestic box office. But its omission on the list of the 15 documentaries the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday would advance in the voting process makes it ineligible for an Oscar.

“Dinesh warned me this might happen,” Molen said with a laugh Tuesday. “The action confirms my opinion that the bias against anything from a conservative point of view is dead on arrival in Hollywood circles. The film’s outstanding success means that America went to see the documentary in spite of how Hollywood feels about it.”

Groucho Marx once said “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,” and that’s the attitude right-leaning filmmakers need to maintain when it comes to a lack of acceptance from Hollywood. Sometimes an absence of industry attention is the best indicator of success.

But it would have been fun to watch some lefty Hollywood presenter — maybe Sarah Jessica Parker, Eva Longoria, George Clooney or anybody else from the $40k-a-plate club — stand before the audience, rip open the envelope containing the title of the Oscar-winning documentary, pause while offering a blank stare into the camera, and then say, “No way I’m reading this.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe