Best Fictional Documentary

Michael Moore won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Bowling for Columbine. In his acceptance speech, Moore said

We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results, that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons

Moore's pre-occupation with fiction might help explain why Bowling for Columbine was the first work of fiction to win a Best Documentary Oscar.

In light of Moore's award, however, the Academy voted to reclassify 1939 Best Picture nominee "The Wizard of Oz" as a documentary so it could be awarded the Best Documentary Oscar retroactively. Academy president Frank Pierson said:

Most people think of The Wizard of Oz as a child's fantasy, but in fact, it was a courageous and true story of a Rainbow coalition consisting of a young animal rights activist (Dorothy), an African-American (the Lion), a disabled prosthesis wearer (Tinman), a gay man (the Scarecrow), and a lesbian (the Good Witch of the North). The movie documents how this coalition fought for social justice and prevailed over the capitalist white man Wizard and his right-wing religious ally the Wicked Witch of the West.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 23, 2003 08:21 PM