Who decides what constitutes "non-specialized" and "regular?"

I specifically asked Apted about the theatres in question. The Cinematheque, for example, has a smaller theatre called the Spielberg that has done longer runs of certain films, Hell House and Los Angeles Played Itself come to mind. The MFA in Boston often does long runs for certain films. Gigantic played there for a month with varying times/days. Because we talked with specificity about these venues and how they show films, I take Apted at his word that they would count in the 14 city requirement.

I think your larger question - where will distributor-less movie go to meet the requirements - calls on us as filmmakers to create the sort of grass roots networks of theatres that are open to doing these kinds of runs. But I agree with the Academy that we, as filmmakers, should be doing actual runs, not the sort of "under the cover of darkness" secretive engagements that many have tried to do to meet the Academy's requirements in the past.

I already pointed this out on A.J.'s blog, but with the new rules, all the Emerging Cinemas venues are now eligible to qualify docs for the Oscars. Up until now the issue has been that we don't adhere to Hollywood's DCI standard for digital exhibition. Using that standard makes digital cinema too expenive and unwieldy for smaller films. The Academy change is a step in the right direction. Now we need to lose the requirement for DCI in the NY and LA qualifying runs. Emerging is in the process of uniting independent distributors and exhibitors worldwide around a different standard for independent and international films, which we call i-Cinema. If you want to see the details, go to www.i-cinema.org.