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At a recent awards party, 'Silver Linings Playbook' producer and master Oscar campaigner Harvey Weinstein crossed paths with his 'Lincoln' counterpart Kathleen Kennedy, the new chief of Disney's Lucasfilm studio.
'I'll lay off 'Lincoln' if you give me a role in 'Star Wars,' ' he told her.
Mr. Weinstein was making light of an Oscar race that this year has been as ferocious as they come. The nine best-picture nominees comprise movies popular with critics, by and large commercially successful, and in some cases steeped in controversy. The favorite has shifted several times (currently it's 'Argo').
The big contenders─including 'Argo,' 'Silver Linings,' 'Lincoln,' 'Zero Dark Thirty' and 'Les Misérables'─have poured as much as $10 million each into campaigns featuring special screenings, glitzy parties, star-powered persuasion, teary interviews and an avalanche of ads. Mudslinging, especially aimed at challenging the authenticity of the fact-based contenders but hard to lay at the feet of campaigners, has been rampant.
Bragging rights and ego are never in short supply in Hollywood, but ultimately, the campaigning is about money. Six of the nine best-picture nominees have shot through $100 million at the box office ('Amour' and 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' are short; 'Zero Dark Thirty' is close). Flush with cash, the nominees have money to spend and dollar signs in their eyes at the prospect of the riches a win can bring.
Ben Affleck and George Clooney have emerged as kings of the campaign circuit, charming voters at intimate receptions and headlining showings for 'Argo.' Seeking to head off last-minute challenges in an unpredictable race, the 'Argo' team bought a 30-minute prime-time TV slot to air a behind-the-scenes promotion for the movie─a move that was mirrored by its closest rivals, 'Lincoln' and 'Silver Linings.'
The stealth battle has turned up at Washington's doorstep with unusual frequency this year as the crush of contenders has sought out new mouthpieces to add gravitas to their campaigns. Big-time Democratic donor Steven Spielberg recruited Bill Clinton to introduce 'Lincoln' at the Golden Globes. 'Silver Linings' director David O. Russell and star Bradley Cooper took the movie's mental-health theme to the capital, meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, who tweeted a photo.
Political-style campaigning has become a fixture of the run-up to the awards, partly thanks to Mr. Weinstein. He reached the heights of his campaign powers with movies like 'Shakespeare in Love,' which spectacularly knocked out 'Saving Private Ryan' for best picture. Scores of consultants and studio executives dedicate 10 months of the year to strategizing how to bring home statuettes.
For 'Silver Linings,' Mr. Weinstein followed one of his typical, er, playbooks. Last fall, he showed the movie, a comedic drama about a young man with bipolar disorder, at the Toronto Film Festival. He threw a lavish party after the screening and had stars including Mr. Cooper work the room. The movie won the audience award, beating out 'Argo,' which also screened at the festival.
The original idea was to release the movie in theaters nationwide at Thanksgiving. But after seeing how the movie played at Toronto, and facing box-office competition from the likes of 'Life of Pi' and Mr. Spielberg's 'Lincoln,' Mr. Weinstein used a tactic he'd used on films like 'The King's Speech.'
He opened the movie in drips, starting with 16 theaters to help build word-of-mouth. He then waited until the nominations (eight) to open the movie wide. A difficult sell because of the mental-illness theme, it still has topped $100 million.
In the run-up to the Oscar nominations in January, Mr. Weinstein blitzed Academy members: At a cocktail reception at Manhattan's Le Cirque restaurant for the movie's director and Mr. De Niro, Mehmet Oz─the host of the morning show 'The Dr. Oz Show'─spoke to the crowd about the movie's mental-health theme, noting its relevance to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn.
After establishing the movie with audiences as a comedy, the campaign shifted more heavily to the topic of mental health in the wake of the Oscar nominations. Mr. De Niro, nominated for best supporting actor, also made himself more visible than usual. He broke down in tears during a taping of Katie Couric's show when they discussed the movie's mental-health theme. Mr. Russell later noted on the show that Mr. De Niro's crying scene in the movie wasn't in the screenplay─it just happened. As voting drew to a close last Tuesday, Weinstein Co. aired a TV ad saying that Mr. De Niro hadn't won an Oscar in 21 years.
The initial aim in all Oscar campaigns is to get as many of the Academy's roughly 6,000 members to see the movie as possible. If they haven't seen it, they won't vote for it. For movies that play better on the big screen─like 'Les Misérables' and 'Life of Pi'─that job is made harder because they needed to get members into a theater, rather than watching a DVD in the comfort of their home.
In recent years, the Academy has introduced rules to clamp down on campaigning gone wild, especially in the period between nominations and voting. Studios can only send Academy members DVDs of their movies, known as screeners, in boxes devoid of supportive quotes. They can't send members gifts. After nominations day, no parties for members allowed.
The Academy recently added a new rule: A third-party Academy member can't throw a bash in support of a nominee─a tactic used of late to draw attention to a movie in the rule-ridden postnomination phase.
'It's the job of consultants to figure out a way around those rules,' said one Academy member. One tactic is targeting the other awards that dot the landscape in the run-up to the Oscars. The tables for such awards were unusually packed with talent this year.
The growing labyrinth of rules, combined with a raft of serious-minded themes, may explain the shift in debate to Washington this year as nominees sought new voices to gain an edge─a role politicians have willingly embraced given their shared interest in the themes.
Emerging from the Toronto festival with Oscar buzz, Messrs. Affleck and Clooney of 'Argo' got to work on events including a cocktail party and screenings. Hugely popular in Hollywood, Mr. Clooney, who produced the movie (he was originally earmarked to direct it but had a schedule clash), and Mr. Affleck, who directed, produced and starred in it, have emerged as campaign power brokers for their movies. Both are figureheads for liberal causes that Hollywood is attracted to, and Mr. Affleck has an appealing comeback story─recounted in several interviews─of clawing his way back from the 2003 mega-flop 'Gigli.' Mr. Clooney's charm is legendary. 'Who can resist George!' said one Academy member.
Potentially key to the movie's emergence as the best-picture favorite was Mr. Affleck's surprise absence from the best-director category and what was seen as his gracious reaction. 'I would like to thank the Academy,' he joked in his acceptance speech at the Critics' Choice Awards, where he won the top prizes, as he did at the Golden Globes and elsewhere. 'Ben has performed his best acting role yet, playing Ben,' said an adviser for a rival campaign.
With an unusual number of fact-based movies in contention, taming the debate about their accuracy has been a challenge. Released last October, 'Argo' tackled it head on. At screenings, Mr. Affleck emphasized the fictional nature of several scenes, including the finale when Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers chase the plane carrying the escaping hostages as it takes off. The movie was positioned as a suspenseful drama and crowd-pleaser, rather than a serious comment on Iran. 'I didn't meet anyone who didn't like 'Argo,' ' said a member of the Academy's executive branch, who nevertheless headed into the final voting weekend undecided between 'Argo,' 'Silver Linings' and 'Lincoln.'
By contrast, 'Zero Dark Thirty' got bogged down early on in a quagmire of political bashing from both sides of the aisle for implying that torture helped track down Osama bin Laden.
'Lincoln' meanwhile made much of its political theme and historical importance. Mr. Spielberg and his star Daniel Day-Lewis generated headlines by screening the movie in the Capitol for lawmakers and meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
While Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Day-Lewis have largely shied away from the party circuit, 'Lincoln' has been featured twice on CBS's '60 Minutes,' still seen as an influential campaign tool with its 10 million-plus viewers. Mr. Spielberg also delivered the keynote speech at the 149th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. A crowd of some 9,000 gave him a standing ovation.
'As great as the shift in the Academy's rules has been, as long as there's campaigning of any sort allowed, movies will win not because they're the best film but because they ran the best campaign,' said one Academy member.
MERISSA MARR
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Post By：2013/2/27 11:48:19
