This is interesting: a Defamer tipster points out out a tiny ad in what looks like the print edition of the Village Voice, listing screenings beginning today in way, WAY uptown Manhattan of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The much-discussed Sundance doc was picked up at that festival, as we noted on our deal chart, for domestic release and Oscar qualifying by HBO. Other than this little ad, there’s been no publicity and no reviews of the film in advance of this New York release; I consulted Moviefone’s AIM movie listings bot, and was told that “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired has not opened yet. It will open on 12-31-10.”
Defamer’s Stu VanAirsdale posits that this secret release is happening as a way of meeting Oscar nomination qualifications––and he’s probably right––but even token qualifying releases are usually given *some* kind of publicity budget. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised: Anne Thompson essentially predicted an in-name-only theatrical release for Wanted when the HBO deal was made at Sundance. As she put it on her blog,

It is revealing that the movie may not get a theatrical release in the current harsh market climate for docs…Picturehouse, which is partially owned by HBO, would be happy to do the theatrical honors, but [HBO's Sheila] Nevins is not known for embracing theatrical.

Wanted will go on to screen on HBO in June and, for all practical purposes and in the minds of most viewers, will live most of its life as a broadcast film. With all the back and forth the Academy has gone through over the past couple of years in an attempt to ensure that only legitimately theatrical documentaries qualify for nominations, it’s amazing that a comparatively major distributor like HBO can so sneakily adhere to the letter of the rules whilst totally defying their spirit.