These five films are all Best Picture nominees from Oscar past, and they were all released by Miramax. In the case of two of them, they are Best Picture Oscar winners. But why were these films, almost all second tier films, able to secure the nominations they did each year, including the coveted Best Picture slot? Two words: Miramax Marketing. This week, I must take time out from the regular news and discussions about Oscar 73 and address an issue which is long past due to be discussed.
It all started in 1996, when the nominees were announced for the Oscar nominations for film year 1995. This really marked the beginning of the ugliest and most shameful Oscar campaigning and promoting that has ever been seen. It continued throughout the 1990's, as substandard films (don't get me wrong, most were competent film productions, but simply not Best Picture Oscar material) continued to displace other, more qualified films, and all apparently due to the Miramax marketing machine, which inundated Academy members with constant promotion, videotapes ... everything until they finally convinced them that they had to nominate their film for not only Best Picture, but several other Oscars as well.
In 1995, they were promoting a foreign film which most had regarded as a very good film, but again, not on the level of a Best Picture nominee. Other, much better films, like Nixon and The Bridges of Madison County were passed over for Il Postino, a film which obviously had no chance of winning. Due to a lack of real quality films in 1996, Miramax successfully pushed The English Patient to a Best Picture win, and eight other Oscars, putting it in a small company of films that have won that many. Now, I liked the film, but please ... is this film going to be remembered decades from now?
There are so many other films from 1996 which have already become classics which will be remembered much longer ... Fargo is one of them, a film which also made the American Film Institute's Top 100 list of all time!
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