For the first time in 12 years, Hollywood's bloodiest Academy Awards battleground will be without its most colorful field general: Miramax Films' Harvey Weinstein has been shut out of the race for best picture.
The larger-than-life symbol of both the heights of inventive filmmaking and the depths of Academy Awards marketing, Weinstein failed Tuesday to obtain the most-coveted Oscar nomination for his epic romance "Cold Mountain," snapping Miramax's remarkable run of nominations for best picture that dates back to "The Crying Game." Nevertheless, Weinstein will continue to cast a long shadow over the awards race as his spare-no-expense marketing tactics are widely copied by other studios.
"If the streak has ended, we'll just have to start it again next year," a publicly upbeat Weinstein said in an interview. Even without a best picture nomination, Miramax still had the most total Academy Award nominations of any studio, with 15. "We've had some great success in the past, but I'll take this day any day of the year."
Still Hollywood considers a best picture nomination, to say nothing of a win, to be in a league of its own in generating profits along with prestige. Weinstein's absence from that competition will be as jarring as listening to the Lakers without hearing Chick Hearn. The studio has dominated the Oscars for the last decade and has elevated awards campaigning to an art form, spawning equal numbers of imitators and detractors.
In place of "Cold Mountain," the films selected for this year's best picture Oscar are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "Lost in Translation," "Seabiscuit," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "Mystic River."
Under the leadership of its co-chairman Weinstein, Miramax changed the very nature of the Oscar race, which culminates a month sooner than in previous years, with the Feb. 29 Academy Awards telecast on ABC. Through hard work, creative marketing and not always gentle persuasion, the Disney-owned studio was often able to raise the prospects of marginally reviewed movies such as "Chocolat" into Hollywood's upper echelon.
Among the keystones of Miramax's past and current strategy: establishing telephone banks to call awards voters, hiring outside awards consultants, spending small fortunes on trade and consumer advertising, and shipping thousands of free DVDs and videocassettes. Miramax has also excelled in spreading the compelling story behind the story -- how the studio saved "Shakespeare in Love" from collapse, or its release of "Il Postino" after the death of that film's star.
