Many conservatives were disgusted this year when "2016: Obama's America" didn't receive an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
In a letter to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Hawk Koch obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, one of the film's producers, Gerald Molen, has asked for Michael Moore to be removed from the documentary branch of the Academy's board of governors:
In the letter, dated April 16 and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter Friday, Molen notes that 2016 was the most popular documentary of 2012. While acknowledging that commercial success and artistic merit are not one in the same, he writes: “Like many who enjoyed and commented on the film, I find myself wondering if it was excluded for ‘other’ reasons.”
For the record, "2016" grossed $33 million dollars selling 4.3 million tickets. "Chimpanzee" at number two grossed $29 million selling 3.7 million tickets. "To The Arctic 3D" came in third grossing $10 million on 1.3 milllion tickets.
The actual Oscar winner "Searching for Sugar Man" grossed $3 million on 400,000 tickets.
That's right. "2016" sold ten times as many tickets as the Oscar-winner but wasn't even nominated.
Molen also mentions his next documentary, called America, which he is co-producing with D’Souza and others from the 2016 team, and writes he worries that the Academy will ignore it due to politics, as he alleges might have been the case with 2016. [...]
“While Mr. Moore is a distinguished filmmaker, he holds a strong partisan view representing what Gallup tells us is only 21 percent of the population,” Molen writes. “Even if he were able to keep his personal philosophy out of the equation, you can certainly understand why the larger American constituency (pegged at 40 percent) would question the exclusion of a well-made and popular film that fails to reflect his views. Even if only in perception, this assumed bias will serve (in my opinion) only to injure the Academy.” [...]
“All up and coming filmmakers deserve to be recognized for their creative sensibilities and should not be punished because the messages of their films fail to fit the dogma of what some believe is politically correct,” Molen writes. “We’ve already experienced a time in Hollywood where an atmosphere of oppression and fear were prevalent and people were punished for their political views. Let us make sure that never happens again.”
Koch has already responded to Molen saying that the film was seriously considered by the board, but that it didn't receive enough votes to win a nomination.
