No, Sarah Palin’s Documentary Did Not Get an Oscar Nod
The Oscar nominations announced earlier today had some heads turning at the 'Documentary Feature' category as a couple of high profile blogs thought that 'The Undefeated,' the critically-panned Sarah Palin documentary, picked up a nod. Turns out, it was all a big coincidence.
Several high profile blogs mistook the sports documentary 'Undefeated' for the Palin doc, both of which were released last year.
The popular news site Fark ran news of the nominations with the headline, "Complete list of the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards. Lowlight: no Michael Fassbender. Lower note: Sarah Palin got a nomination. Seriously."
The political blog Wonkette also mistook the film for the Sarah Palin doc, and joked they were surprised the film didn't win a nomination in the "Animated Feature Film or Hilarious Costume Design" categories. Wonkette realized their mistake shortly after the news ran and updated their post accordingly.
It's an easy mistake to make since the films' titles are similar, but their similarities are in name only. 'Undefeated,' directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, follows the struggles of an underfunded inner city high school football team in Memphis, TN to turn their team towards the big title game with the help of an inspiring and dedicated coach. Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney called it a "stirring, finely crafted human-interest story about underprivileged lives touched by the rewards of shared experience."
'The Undefeated,' written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon, chronicles the personal and political career of the former Alaskan governor and vice presidential contender. It received a 0 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes' "Tomatometer" and Hollywood Reporter critic Todd McCarthy called it "partisan" and "stitched together" and designed only to "get media attention simply for its subject, though it isn't a must-see film by any means."
We're disappointed Palin didn't get the nod. The potential of hilarity that her acceptance speech could bring would be our only reason to stay awake during all of the lesser nominations.