Film critics' message smacks of extortion

Message received! Well, sort of. OK, actually, not at all. . . .

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association is obviously trying to make a major statement to Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, by announcing the cancellation of its annual awards.

The group's decision is part of a flap about one aspect of Valenti's anti-piracy effort, the banning of MPAA-member studios from sending out screener videotapes/DVDs to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and to critics.

Surprisingly, the MPAA has backed down, however, and will now allow screeners (tapes only) to be sent out after all. But only to Oscar voters.

Valenti invoked the ban because some screeners have been made available to bootleggers, who then copy and sell the films illegally.

Nearly everyone in the industry has been up in arms over the ban — but the L.A. critics' response was a bit surprising.

A news release said: "(Valenti's) ban on screeners seriously inhibits our ability to work as professionals and compromises the integrity and fairness of the evaluative process."

Unfortunately, the move doesn't come off as intended. Instead, it sounds petty and even smacked of extortion when Jean Oppenheimer, the group's president, told the Reuters News Service, "If the ban is lifted, then we would reschedule our awards."

Besides, with all due respect to my West Coast counterparts, one less awards ceremony doesn't seem like such a bad thing. There is already a glut of film awards every year that have pretty much diluted the system.

And that's in addition to all the individual top-10 lists, on which there is rarely a consensus. (Which I say, despite the fact that I will still compile my own annual end-of-the-year list in December, as per usual . . . as if I could possibly keep my opinions to myself.)

Meanwhile, 5,600 Oscar voters will receive studio screenings, but no one else. So L.A. critics are still mad.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com