As the Academy Awards approach, a term you might have heard being thrown around lately is "Team Oscar," especially in conjunction with the name Channing Tatum, and I bet you're wondering what exactly is going on — and, specifically, what exactly "Team Oscar" is. Contrary to popular belief, "Team Oscar" isn't yet another t-shirt that you need to add to your "Team Angie" and "Team Jen" collection, so stop Googling "Oscar who dated Brad Pitt" before you embarrass yourself. In actuality, it's a contest wherein up-and-coming filmmakers can compete for the honor of appearing onstage during the Oscars.
The competition is in its third year and this year was launched by Tatum, Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and the rest of the Academy, who invited 'the next generation of filmmakers' to show them what they're capable of in the form of a short video, as long as they fit the following requirements:
Team Oscar is open to U.S. citizens, ages 18 to 30 (in previous years entries were limited to college students only), and submissions are due by January 12, 2015 at 9:00 p.m. PT. To enter, filmmakers must visit the Academy’s Facebook page, where they can submit a creative 60-second video on the subject, “The best piece of advice I’ve ever received.”
Every year, they select up to six winners. For this year, they chose: Chris Carmona, from Bell, CA, Justin Craig, from Ballston Spa, NY, Kelly FitzGerald, from Geneva, NY, Justin Floyd, from Compton, CA, Rhianna Shaheen, from Virginia Beach, VA, and Patrick Walker, from Atlanta, GA. All six of these lucky winners will appear on the live broadcast of the 87th Academy Awards this Sunday, Feb. 22, where they'll get to hand the statuettes to the celebrity presenters, who will then hand them off to the winners.
So basically, everyone on that list I just reeled off will essentially have one degree of separation between them and an Oscar-winner. *Faints* Is it too late to become a member of Team Oscar myself? Would just really like to touch Julianne Moore's hand by proxy when she wins for Still Alice if that's okay.
