What are the worst decisions made in Oscar campaigning history?

[Cordelia Joined: Jul 15th, 2018 Topics: 17 Posts: 547 View Predictions]

#1203781812

In the Best Actor thread, I commented that I thought A24 prioritising Uncut Gems over The Lighthouse as their Oscars push was a poor tactical decision that cost them potentially obtainable Oscar nominations such as Dafoe.

This brings the question – what are some other terrible tactical decisions in Oscars campaigning history? I don’t mean bad performances nor films, I mean poor priorities, category choices that cost nominations, putting the wrong film for the Oscars as the top. Get creative, give me some historical deep cuts!

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 1 Posts: 1417 View Predictions]

#1203781820

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[xandyeugh Joined: Aug 21st, 2020 Topics: 1 Posts: 240 View Predictions]

#1203781834

Amy Adams campaigning for Lead Actress in American Hustle. She would have won even if Lawrence was in the mix especially considering she had the beefier material.

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[Atypical Joined: Dec 1st, 2011 Topics: 88 Posts: 5760 View Predictions]

#1203781836

Neon dropping the ball with Alfre Woodard’s searing performance in “Clemency” will always be a huge campaigning blunder. I know that Neon is a novice studio and placed all of its eggs in one basket with “Parasite,” which turned out beautifully for them, but still. She could have made history with the right campaign.

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[Stank83 Joined: Mar 8th, 2020 Topics: 105 Posts: 2108 View Predictions]

#1203781844

The worst fraud ever in Oscar history must be Marlon Brando being put in Lead for The Godfather, and Pacino in Supporting, when it’s CLEARLY the opposite.

And Pacino should have easily won in the Lead category.

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 1 Posts: 1417 View Predictions]

#1203782073

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[Hoster1 Joined: Aug 8th, 2016 Topics: 3 Posts: 1560 View Predictions]

#1203782183

Netflix prioritising everyone else over Eddie Murphy.

I won’t be able bare it when they do that to Sophia Loren this year.

How is that bad decision? Murphy had never a win potential. He couldn’t even make SAG, when he had a type of movie the voters should eat up.

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[nkb325 Joined: Feb 6th, 2012 Topics: 2 Posts: 682 View Predictions]

#1203782482

I maintain that A24 fucked up by campaigning Jacob Tremblay in supporting for Room. Even ignoring the fact that he is clearly a lead (he has MORE screentime than lead winner Brie Larson, he’s the narrator of the movie, and he’s literally in every scene), the lead actor race ended up being much less competitive than supporting that year, and I really do think he would’ve been nominated had they campaigned him in lead.

I also think if it had happened a couple years later, when A24 was more established at the oscars, they might have had the balls to make the riskier choice of campaigning a child actor in lead, but I suppose I get them going with the safer choice since they were so new to everything.

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[braydenfitzsimmons Joined: May 3rd, 2015 Topics: 95 Posts: 8454 View Predictions]

#1203782539

The Weinstein Co completely abandoning The Butler is baffling.

• It made so much money ($120m domestic in the summer). The Help just happened two years prior, there’s a recent precedent doing this type of summer adult blockbuster successful.
• Oprah still getting in everywhere and it making SAG Ensemble clearly showed it would’ve made it further if campaigned
• It’s also structurally similar to the feel good white saviour biopics that AMPAS loved and would’ve been a more easily digestible alternative to voters who didn’t want to reward/watch 12YAS (how many times did we this coming up in honest ballots, Ellen even made of fun it in her monologue)

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[schmids Joined: Oct 10th, 2020 Topics: 0 Posts: 877 View Predictions]

#1203782641

Not a campaigning decision per se, but if Noah Baumbach/Netflix had gotten Marriage Story out a season earlier (it was filmed early 2018) it would have done much better.

Stank83 wrote:

The worst fraud ever in Oscar history must be Marlon Brando being put in Lead for The Godfather, and Pacino in Supporting, when it’s CLEARLY the opposite. And Pacino should have easily won in the Lead category.

But Brando did win, so it’s not necessarily a ‘bad’ decision. Just category fraud.

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[Awardsfan1990 Joined: Mar 28th, 2015 Topics: 109 Posts: 6039 View Predictions]

#1203783109

John Wayne infamously campaigned hard for The Alamo to get recognition despite it not being a critical or commercial success. Oscar voters were so fed up with his tireless campaigning that they basically said “Fine! Are you happy now?!” According to some film historians, it’s because of this move that Psycho got left out of the Best Picture race despite its nominations for Janet Leigh and Alfred Hitchock.

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[Gabe Guarin Joined: Feb 23rd, 2017 Topics: 9 Posts: 1201 View Predictions]

#1203783273

Awardsfan1990 wrote:

John Wayne infamously campaigned hard for The Alamo to get recognition despite it not being a critical or commercial success. Oscar voters were so fed up with his tireless campaigning that they basically said “Fine! Are you happy now?!” According to some film historians, it’s because of this move that Psycho got left out of the Best Picture race despite its nominations for Janet Leigh and Alfred Hitchock.

If I were an Oscar voter in 1960, I would shut out The Alamo completely just to spite him, and then nominate a bunch of foreign films just to further spit in his face.

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[Awardsfan1990 Joined: Mar 28th, 2015 Topics: 109 Posts: 6039 View Predictions]

#1203783806

He infamously didn’t get along with his co-star Richard Widmark during filming, due to their differing political views, with Wayne being a Republican and Widmark being a Democrat. Charlton Heston actually turned down the film because he, being a Democrat at the time, didn’t want to to work with Wayne.

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[Fitzgerald Joined: Jan 21st, 2015 Topics: 0 Posts: 152 View Predictions]

#1203783861

I was thinking Rooney Mara could have won in lead category for Carol because I was a bit underwhelmed by Larson. I think people didn’t vote for her in supporting because it is category fraud at its pinnacle. (the hilarious “Rooney Moore” by Diane Ladd) You still could argue Eddie Redmayne is the true lead in The Danish Girl rather than Vikander. In Mara’s case, there is no excuse.

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[FilmRoyalty Joined: Oct 5th, 2011 Topics: 63 Posts: 2900 View Predictions]

#1203783915

Viola for Support with Fences. She would gave taken the lead Oscar in my opinion.

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