الوسم: campaign

1997

2001

— Weinstein was able to secure a Best Picture nomination for the unlikelyChocolat with, as USA Today put it at the time, "such eyebrow-raising moves as a newspaper ad in which Jesse Jackson and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League praised the film."

2002

— With their In the Bedroom going up against favorite A Beautiful Mind, Miramax reportedly perpetrated a "smear Campaign unprecedented in the History of the Academy Awards for its viciousness." According to Down and Dirty Pictures, this involved pointing a Los Angeles Times writer to a Matt Drudge piece about how A Beautiful Mind omitted the parts of the original biography relating to John Nash’s alleged homosexuality. Then after ballots went out, news came out of "Jew-bashing passages" from the book.

2003

—Weinstein was involved with four of the five Best Picture nominees: Gangs of New York, Chicago, The Hours, and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(on which he and his brother are credited as producers). Despite all these horses in the same race, Weinstein throws all of his weight behind getting Martin Scorsese his first Oscar for Best Director. As Biskind writes in Down and Dirty Pictures, "[Weinstein] had [Scorsese] putting in appearances and gratefully accepting tacky awards at every rubber chicken dinner between Los Feliz and Santa Monica."

— Writing for New York, Anne Thompson explained how extreme the campaign was: "Is Gangs of New York too violent? Surround Martin Scorsese at a Women in Film lunch at Spago with Oscar nominees Diane Ladd, Sharon Stone, Winona Ryder, and Juliette Lewis. Is Scorsese too much of a Hollywood outsider? Bring him to L.A. and have producer Irwin Winkler (New York, New York) throw him a Golden Globes party full of local writers and directors. Is Scorsese producing a blues concert at Radio City Music Hall? Make sure his **** is plastered across the marquee. Are actors protesting that they can’t use their sag membership cards to get into movies for free? Take over the Beverly Hills Music Hall, book Chicago and Gangs, and welcome all card-carrying members."

— Weinstein got former Academy president and director of The Sound of Music Robert Wise to write an op-ed praising Scorsese and Gangs of New York. Miramax in turn used that op-ed in ads for the movie with the headline reading, "Two time Academy Award winner Robert Wise declares Scorsese deserves the Oscar for Gangs of New York." It was later revealed that a Miramax publicist actually wrote it and had the 88-year-old Wise sign it. (This resulted in the Academy banning ads that include quotes from Academy members.)

— Biskind writes that after The Pianist won Best Picture at the BAFTAs, Miramax panicked. A Miramax publicist called The Pianist director Roman Polanski a "rapist" and "child molester." Then an almost 30-year-old deposition from Polanski’s victim appeared on the Smoking Gun ***site. It’s hard to say whether Miramax unearthed the ********, but, according to Biskind, Miramax did have their people fan the flames.

2004

2009

— When front-runner Slumdog Millionaire was hit suddenly with negative press implying that its filmmakers had exploited the movie’s Indian child actors, people assumed Weinstein was behind it. His response: “What can I say? When you’re Billy the Kid and people around you die of natural causes, everyone thinks you shot them.”

— After pushing very hard to have the The Reader released before the end of year (to a point that so frustrated Scott Rudin that he took his **** off the film) so that it would be eligible for award season, Weinstein mounted a targeted attack focusing on, as EW explains, "the Academy’s aging Jewish population," by screening the film at "Jewish cultural hot spots as the Skirball Center in Los Angeles and the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan." Also, he courted endorsements from the Anti-Defamation League as well as Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

2010

— Weinstein, who was pushing Inglourious Basterds at the time, was rumored to have been involved in an anti–Hurt Locker whisper campaign, attacking the film’s realism. Soldiers came forward, calling the film’s portrayal of war inaccurate.

2011

— With his The King’s Speech up against rival Rudin’s The Social Network, Weinstein went particularly hard on event-throwing. There was a post-nomination party hosted by Ridley Scott, Jennifer Lopez, and Mick Jagger; a star-studded party hosted by Arianna Huffington; a screening attended by the media elite, like Rupert Murdoch and Katie Couric; and much more.

— Leading up to the Academy Awards, Weinstein created a stir over editing the original film to make a PG-13 version that would appeal to a wide audience. Some suspect it was ultimately a PR stunt to get the film more attention.

2012

— Weinstein held an academy screening of The Artist hosted by two of Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughters.

— The Weinstein Company sent a for-your-consideration e-mail to The Hollywood Reporter‘s subscribers. It included a quote from critic Thelma Adams: "It’s been TWENTY-NINE YEARS SINCE MERYL STREEP WON AN Oscar and she certainly deserves to win for her performance in The Iron Lady!" This should’ve been against the rules, because for-your-considerations aren’t allowed to reference past awards. Weinstein, however, found a loophole by sending it through a third party.

2013

— As we reported last year, Weinstein secretly hired Obama’s deputy Campaign manager to help with the Campaign for The Silver Linings Playbook.

— On the last day of Oscar voting, Weinstein issued a press release saying that David O. Russell will be working with Jennifer Lawrence again on The Ends of the Earth. Russell was quoted as saying about Lawrence: "She is the most dedicated person I know. She is devoted to her family, and they have been the true inspiration for her … Her acting is effortless, and she always makes it look easy." The thing is, as The Hollywood Reporter wrote, Russell had not, in fact, signed on to direct the project. Knowing the news would make its way around, it was allegedly a last-minute attempt by Weinstein to draw attention from voters.