In the case of a movie like
Selma, which has missed out on some expected guild nominations, the DVD issue can make for good cover. And indeed,
Selma may have suffered from ego rage in some groups. The film was screened on November 11 for the first time. It was not quite done. Team DuVernay didn’t have their finished product until Thanksgiving week… when all the DVD production houses are closed for 5 days or more. That meant it got to the replicator on December 1.
SAG Nominating Committee started voting on November 19 and finished on December 8. DVDs literally could not be sent in time.
DGA voting started online on December 3.
Next question is, how many units could they make in how little time? And as the DVDs became available to ship, when would they arrive?
First priority, as it should be, is AMPAS. And they got screeners sometime in the third week of December.
Was there any point in trying to send DVDs to 15,000 DGA members if they were going to arrive more than halfway through the voting period and might not be received by holidaying members until January 5, a week before voting closed?
PGA voting actually started the day before DGA, December 1, and ended (insanely) on January 2, making DVD distribution of
Selma to PGA’s 8000 members even more clearly futile.
Two days after DGA voting began, BFCA was informed that there would be no
Selma screeners in time for the nominating vote, which started December 8 and ended December 12.
David Poland