How does Marketing Win the Oscar?

Credit: redenergypromotions.com.au

So how do you win the Oscar, or at the very least get nominated? The key is making piece of art likable to a bunch of snobby directors and the magic of marketing!

Best Picture, in all shapes and form, is more so a contest of which film every director can agree on is the “best” of the year, though with a shoddy voting system it sometimes fails at that. Though they often prefer the arts, anythings possible to win, hell when Variety got the 2017 full nomination list for the Oscars, Assasin’s Creed, one of the years worst rated movies, was eligible for nomination. But it takes more than that, it takes advertising.

Though I hate to say it, Weinstein had it right with The Artist. A French, silent, black-and-white film with no A-List actors, that made it the top. Harvey Weinstein promoted whatever he could out of the film. Every last ounce of the film’s efforts in America went to promotion and distribution, and it worked. As CNN wrote, "Harvey's come out of his fallow years as the guy to beat at the Oscars," he took a movie no one heard about and turned it into a success on every front. I hate to say it, but get yourself someone like Weinstein to find these films, these small foreign, and don’t drain, but grow them into something that is recognizable and new to everyone. It takes two to tango, and a movie can’t tango without it’s promotion. Out of 300 films eligible, it became one of the 10.

But what is a snobby art film that directors love? Well, just that. Take for example again The Artist. The first black & white silent picture to make it to the Academy Awards since 1929. It was, as the name says, art, because unlike The Avengers it is less about the action to keep the audience reeled in and rather the story and motions that make it. One of the most recent rewards nominees, Manchester by the Sea, fits the same idea, it is a man battling his emotions rather than aliens, but still maintains the same intensity. Though you should spend your budget based on your intents, if you're going for the Oscar, make it something cheap and spend the money on promotion.