Is It Marketing Or Merit?

Here's an Oscar refresher course: Last year, the winner for Best Picture was Shakespeare in Love, yet Steven Spielberg took home the trophy for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan.

In the aftermath, there was much written and discussed about that weird division of Oscar gold. (How can a film with the best direction fail to win Best Picture?) And much of the speculation centered on one thing: marketing.

Shakespeare in Love is a Miramax film, and that company put a lot of effort into promoting the movie for the big awards before and after it was nominated.

Saving Private Ryan is a DreamWorks film, but its marketing campaign has not been quite as aggressive as the one for Shakespeare.

Fast forward to Oscars 2000. Two contenders for Best Picture are American Beauty and The Cider House Rules.

And guess what?

The Cider House Rules is a Miramax film.

And American Beauty is a DreamWorks film.

Can the Oscar be bought through trade ads and general schmoozing of the Academy members?

Early Show Anchor Bryant Gumbel asked showbiz reporter Mitchell Fink if the award is won on merit or marketing.

"I think you win it on merit, but if you don't have the marketing, you are in big, big trouble," replied Fink, a columnist for the New York Daily News and a former writer for People magazine. "A great example of that is what Miramax does with a movie like Cider House Rules. By all calculations, by knowledgeable observers, it was not going to do this well."

"After they got the nominations, Miramax has been working that film," Fink added. "If you look at the newspapers every day, you'll see many little Cider House Rules stories. I guarantee you don't see near as many with American Beauty."

Under the leadership of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miramax scored the Best Picture victory last year, even though the DreamWorks picture was acknowledged to be the best movie of the year, Fink said.

"It became a two-horse race," Fink recalled. "Shakespeare wound up as the best picture of the year, and I do maintain they had better marketing than DreamWorks did. Suddenly, DreamWorks is in another fight with Miramax because DreamWorks has American Beauty, which was on everyone's 'best' list."

Fink also said that he does not think DreamWorks is putting forth enough marketing effort on behalf of American Beauty.

"I don't think they're doing enough for American Beauty," he said.. "I haven't seen as many stories. The movie came out earlier in the year and is a tougher sell at this time of the year. But, somehow, Miramax has made this into a two-horse race. You don't even hear about The Green Mile."