Race Begins For Oscar Gold

At the movies this weekend, Magnolia, The Cider House Rules and Snow Falling on Cedars are all opening. If you live in New York or Los Angeles, these films are old news.

That's because they opened in those cities at the end of December to qualify for Academy Award consideration. January is the beginning of campaign season, Oscar style.

The campaigns consist of sending tapes to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, taking out ads in trade papers like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and setting up screenings, so Academy members can see a movie on a big screen without paying.

Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd has the scoop in a new regular feature called Weekend Marquee.

Those three words are very important to movie studios this time of year. They are launching an all-out assault on Academy voters, reminding them why their film deserves that all-important Oscar nomination.

"There are really two ways to think about the Academy campaigns," says Bob Friedman, co-chairman of worldwide marketing for New Line Cinema. "One is, to the actual Academy members, you're actually sending out cassettes and communication and advertising and trade magazines to say, 'Hey, try and go to see this screening.'"

"The second...and in the best case, in case of something like Magnolia, where you can go to the consumer and say, 'Hey, this movie's coming out this week,'" Friedman adds.

For the public, that means a never-ending stream of commercials. For Academy members, it's something else. They receive dozens of cassettes from movie studios hoping to get votes and spread word of mouth. It has been known to work.

"Two years ago, I was sent a tape for a film called Mrs. Brown," recalls Steve Haft, an independent filmmaker and Academy member.

"Mrs. Brown was a film that we stayed home and watched, and then we started calling friends. We said, 'Who saw this thing? This is the greatest film we've seen this year.' And I, indeed...nominated it for best picture of the year," Haft says. "I would not have know about it but for the Oscar box."

This year a film like Election might benefit in the same way, says Haft, adding, "The campaign will have an impact in getting the older voter, who might not have turned out to see Reese Witherspoon in a brilliant performance in a terrific film."

That's what happened in 1994 to Jessica Lange, who won the best actress Oscar for Blue Sky, a film that hardly anyone saw in the movie theater. Academy members really discovered her performance with the tapes that were sent out.

According to Friedman, Oscar campaigns can cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to, quite probably, millions. But it can be money well spent. Last year, Shakespeare in Love added $64 million to its box-office receipt after earning 11 nominations and eventually beating Saving Private Ryan for best picture.

"You never know what really puts it over the edge in the end," notes Friedman. "In the case of Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan, you know, who knows what really made it the winner? I think both of them had very good campaigns."

Will Magnolia, The Cider House Rules, or Snow Falling on Cedars earn nominations? It may have something to do with how they do at the box office this weekend. Tune in Monday to Box Office Plus on The Early Show.