It sounds like a film lover’s dream – being able to watch 47 Oscar contenders, for free, and in the comfort of your own home. But for Janice Blackie-Goodine of Summerland, one of 6,500 voters for the Academy Awards, it’s hard work.
When the Oscar nominees were announced Tuesday, Blackie-Goodine voted on the finalists for Best Picture and Best Art Direction, the branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which she’s been a member of since 1993.
For the past month, Blackie-Goodine has received promotional DVDs (some in Blueray) of contending movies. She has watched up to 60 in other years but notes there were fewer independent releases this year – something she thinks is the result of a downturn in the economy.
The package doesn’t look like a standard DVD you’d pick-up in a video store or the grocery store check-out. The case is modest, usually marked by "For Your Consideration", with suggestions of potential nominees. Depending on the company there’s only the obvious choices on the jacket while others offer as many as five suggestions for a category such as Best Supporting Actor. Most recommend their movie for "Best Picture" consideration.
The DVD also doesn’t offer bonus features or even scene selections and it often has a warning flashed across the screen at various times stating it’s the property of the respective film company. She’s not allowed to loan the movies to others (we already asked) and is sometimes told to destroy them once she’s finished.
"When I watch a movie, I try and think of every category possible, first with the art direction because that’s my area. Then I’ll look back at things such as the lighting, the make-up, the editing, the (musical) score, the visual effects – if there are any – and then the acting and writing," explains Blackie-Goodine, a nominee herself for Clint Eastwood’s "Unforgiven" in 1992.
"If it’s a really good movie, I get immersed in it and will have to go back and watch it again. Sometimes I’ll watch a movie a second or third time or at least go back and fast forward to certain scenes."
On this particular night she’s watching and fairly obscure film which critics were predicting would earn a handful of major nominations. She wouldn’t know that because she deliberately ignores other awards such as the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. A subscriber to The Herald, she’ll even skip over stories that predict the Oscar outcome because she doesn’t want it to fog her objectivity. During the voting period, the trade papers that are mailed to her home are read only by her husband Dean, a prop master presently working on the Fox series "Human Target".
She’s also not allowed to comment on any of this year’s contenders, because the Academy has a long list of regulations. Among the strict rules is she may not say what she thinks of a movie during the voting period nor may she ever tell anyone who she voted for in any category.
"I love movies and I love being a voting member of the Academy. It does get tiring. In a two-month period, I’ll be watching 47 movies. The most I’ll ever watch in a day is three because it gets fuzzy after that. If I lived in L.A., it would be easier because I could just go to the premiers."
Some of the films she’s able to see in the theatre but she’s hindered because many of the Oscar contenders never show in Penticton or even Kelowna. Most of the Oscar contenders are also released in December in order to keep it fresh in the minds of Academy members.
A Best Picture Oscar, or even a win in a lesser category, guarantees added success at the box office and therefore most companies push to have their films noticed.
Her first job is to rank the Best Picture contenders from one through 10 on a weighted vote as well as Best Art Direction from one to five. (For the first time since 1939, there are 10 Best Picture nominees this year.)
Even as technology evolves, voting is still done the old fashioned way – by secret ballot. She sends her ballots to Price Waterhouse in Los Angeles by Fed-Ex. Voting never occurs over the Internet.
Once the nominees are announced, she votes on every category with the lone exceptions being Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Feature because those films seldom have the budget to mail out mass copies to the Academy voters.
"It’s a great responsibility and I don’t take it lightly. I come from an art background and I feel it’s the same thing like having a critique done on your painting," said the part-time painter who devotes her full energy to her art between movie shoots.
It’s tough to become a member of the Academy. It requires a sponsorship and often years of waiting. When she was nominated for "Unforgiven" (losing to "Howard’s End"), she wasn’t able to vote for herself because she wasn’t a member at that time. This past year she joined the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television after winning a Genie Award for her contributions to "Passchendaele", which also took home four other awards including Best Picture.
While she ignores other award shows, Blackie-Goodine always watches the Oscars and was up early this morning for the official announcement of the nominees.
