Banning Screeners and Lifetime Achievement Awards

The way I see it, this new "compromise" is only going to anger these other awards organizations even more, because now the MPAA and the studios are apparently making a clear statement that they really only care about the Academy Awards. So I wouldn't be surprised to see organizations like the NY Film Critics cancelling their awards as well. In the new compromise, the studios agreed to send out only VHS screeners (which are not as easy to pirate as are DVD's), encrypted with a special security code that could be traced to the individual members of the Academy. I don't know why they can't just do this for all awards organizations, since they could track them just as well. The Academy itself is trying to work with the MPAA to institute penalties for anyone caught trying to copy or sell their screener copies of films.

Look, I understand the frustration in the film industry concerning piracy, but I think this is the wrong way to go about it. All they have to do is place watermarks on the videos themselves with the person's name or the organization's name, and then it would be very easy to track and punish any piracy that does occur. Because all they are doing now is angering the industry for which these awards organizations are trying to honor, and giving the major studios the best benefit of getting their movies noticed with more awards and Oscar nominations since the smaller films have less of a chance to find their way to the hearts and minds of the individuals who vote for these awards.

But the debate will continue, and it's bound to get uglier before it gets better, unless the MPAA and the studios finally come to their senses and discover the right way to go about this.

But let's get to some happier news ... a couple of special lifetime achievement awards were recently announced the past couple of weeks. The American Film Institute announced that the legendary actress Meryl Streep, who is now our current record holder for most Oscar nominations for an actor, will be the recipient of the next AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, the 32nd one ever given since the award's inception in 1973. Streep is certainly overdue to receive this honor, which has become one of the most prestigious honors next to the Academy Awards to be given to an individual in

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