Deadline reports today that Whiplash, Damien Chazelle’s superb Sundance winner, has been somewhat surprisingly classified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as an adapted script, rather than a original screenplay. Even stranger still was that the Academy apparently didn’t inform the director or the films distributor, Sony Pictures Classics, about the decision until after the ballots for votes were sent out at the end of December.
Furthermore in another strange twist, the Writers Guild of America has deemed the script an original screenplay which has led to an unprecedented scenario where the two bodies disagree on a classification of a film’s merits.
So why the confusion. Well, it seems that the answer lies in the creation and financing of the film. To secure financing to make the film, Chazelle made a short 18-minute film based on a scene from the script, which in turn not only secured him a deal, but was also entered into the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Shorts where it won a prize, just as the real film did a year later.
The Academy , according to its rules, considers a “short” to qualify under their guidelines of “Screenplays based on previously produced or published material”, which would explain the classification of Whiplash.
It’s certainly controversial as the film has a massive chance to walk away with the best original screenplay, but may now fall short unless the Academy changes its decision before the ceremony on February 22nd, but it sadly seems unlikely.
Whiplash opens in the UK on January 16th.
Originally published January 7, 2015. Updated October 24, 2022.
