The Army, with a hand from Hollywood, has received a long-lost Oscar back into its ranks.
The little statue took a long, and largely unknown path before being passed from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis to an Army general during a Wednesday night ceremony and screening.
In 1942, a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, filmmaker Frank Capra joined the Army and was assigned to create a film series, “Why We Fight.”
Major Capra, who had directed such films as “It Happened One Night,” ”Lost Horizon” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was told to create the documentary “Prelude to War.”
He showed the finished work to Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall, who insisted that President Roosevelt see the film.
In his 1971 autobiography, “The Name Above the Title,” Capra wrote of a screening at the White House. Amid the applause at the end, FDR exclaimed: “Every man, woman and child in the w orld should see this film!”
“Prelude to War” was at first seen solely by soldiers in Army quarters, but the Army eventually relented and 250 prints were sent to theaters across the country.
The Academy staged a screening of “Prelude to War” on Wednesday night at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood.
“Sixty-five years later, ‘Prelude to War’ still continues to be one of the greatest documentaries ever made,” said Ganis, the emcee for the screening.
In 1942, “Prelude to War” won an Oscar for Best Documentary by the U.S. Army Special Services but, Ganis explained, the prize wasn’t an Oscar but a plaque. All of the awards were in plaster, not metal, during the war because of the metal shortage.
After the war the Army received an actual Oscar statue and it was stored in the Army Pictorial Center. When the center closed in 1970, the Oscar disappeared.
Capra, who died in 1991, made other documentaries for the military during the war, including “The Nazis Strike,” ”The Battle of Britain,” ”The Negro Soldier” and “Divide and Conquer.”
Earlier this year, Christie’s auction house advertised an Oscar for sale. It was the missing “Prelude to War” award.
The Academy notified the army, which claimed the prize.
On Wednesday night, Ganis presented a polished, 8-pound Oscar to Brig. Gen. Jeffrey E. Phillips, deputy chief of public affairs for the army.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More