| Synopsis |
The Special
Award takes place during a period of crisis at the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1936. While today we think of
the Academy only as the benign guardian of the Oscar telecast, its
origins are actually much darker. It was the brainchild of MGM head
Louis B. Mayer, who started the organization as a trade arbitrator
controlled by the studio heads. When the real unions like SAG and
the WGA started growing in Hollywood, they took umbrage against
the Academy as the puppet organization it was. It all came to a
head at the 1936 awards, when unions pressured their members not
to attend the banquet (this was before the days of the secret ballots
and the awards being held in a theatre) and climaxed with the Oscar
actually being turned down by screenplay winner Dudley Nichols.
In an act of desperation, Academy President Frank Capra came up
with the tactical master stroke of presenting a special award for
lifetime achievement to legendary director D.W. Griffith (the first
time such an award was ever presented at the Oscar ceremony) in
a last-ditch effort to generate some excitement for the banquet.
The ploy worked, and not only did the Oscars survive but Griffith
received the first standing ovation ever given at the Academy Awards
ceremony.
The Special Award takes these historical events and imagines
them as a kind of a war between the union and Academy factions with
Griffith caught in the middle. Griffith is portrayed as a burned
out alcoholic who sees the award ceremony as a last-chance shot
to revive his fallen career by peddling a project to the Hollywood
big shots who claim to be honoring him. But in addition to being
caught in the union dilemma and plagued by the disappointments of
his career downslide, Griffith must also contend with the never-ending
controversy surrounding the racism of his masterpiece Birth of
a Nation.
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