Last week there was a little brouhaha about Sony Pictures Classics not sending out awards consideration screeners of Duncan Jones' excellent scifi film Moon. I didn't run this because a) ehhh, who cares* and b) the reasoning behind the screener snub was obvious - SPC didn't see Moon as an Oscar picture, and they're probably right. I mean, it would have been nice to send out screeners, but it isn't like this was the most mystifying screener snub in history.

Then the story took a turn for the LOL, when Movieline reached out to SPC and asked why they didn't send out Moon screeners.

Thus spake SPC:

“The DVD and Blu-ray come out on Jan. 12 — next Tuesday — and it was felt that to preserve the integrity of the film, we didn’t want to send screeners,” the rep told me. “We’re concerned about piracy. The thing about Moon is that its particular genre is very predisposed toward being uploaded onto the Web. We really just wanted to protect that aspect of it. It’s a simple as that. […] A lot of publicity for Moon is coming out next week. Hopefully that will remind all the consumers, all the readers — and especially any awards folks — that this terrific title is out there.”

Oh man. That's so dumb. First of all, the movie has been out on DVD and Blu in the UK for weeks and weeks. I haven't checked, but the fact that it's been on home video for a month in another country leads me to believe it's surely been pirated already. But on top of that, SPC could have just sent some of those DVDs  that are being pressed for release to awards types. I know they don't want to spend a whole bunch of money - that's really the main reason they didn't send out screeners in the first place - but the fact that DVDs exist makes their lack of interest in supporting the picture seem doubly stupid. Hell, they should have just cried 'The Economy!' and everybody would have gotten it. Instead they're playing the piracy boogeyman at a time when it's evident to any thinking person that this particular monster is already out of the closet.

In  the meantime, order your copy of Moon through CHUD by clicking here.

* I mean, I care sort of, but this awards season stuff is horrible bullshit. A good movie is no better or worse depending on its nomination status. Nominations might help Moon sell DVDs, but I feel like it's really unlikely that the film would ever get awards traction, just from knowing how those horrible awards groups operate. That said, good on Duncan Jones for continuing to support Sam Rockwell through a grassroots campaign.