Fifty years ago today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screened my documentary, Cotton Eyed Joe, along with the other short-listed films in both the Documentary (Short Subject) and Short Subject (Live Action) Oscar categories. There was not a Student Academy Awards at the time; that would start the next year in 1973. Here’s the from the screening: tinyurl.com/nb56ts2r
I made Cotton Eyed Joe in 1971 during my senior year at the USC School of Cinema. It had a reenacted sequence which was based on an actual event in the main character’s life. Because of the reenactment, USC’s faculty thought the Academy would not accept it as an entry in the documentary category, and so it was entered into the live action category.
For the 1972 Oscars, the Academy decided to limit the live action short category to three nominations instead of the usual five. The documentary short category remained at five nominations.
Cotton Eyed Joe did not receive a nomination. The winner of the Best Documentary Short Subject was Sentinels of Silence. The winner of the Best Narrative Short Subject was Sentinels of Silence. Yes, you read that correctly! This was the only time a short film won Oscars in two categories. Afterwards, the Academy changed its rules to prevent documentaries from competing against narrative films in the Best Short Subject category.
You can find Sentinels of Silence online if you want to look at how different this film is from the documentaries of today. Also, if you’ve never seen Cotton Eyed Joe, you can view it on my website.