Miramax’s Weinstein Blames Oscar Snub on Timing
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein was quoted on Sunday as blaming the timing of the release of “Cold Mountain” for the film’s failure to win an Oscar nomination in the best picture category.
In interviews with Time and Newsweek, Weinstein said he opened the highly acclaimed Civil War epic starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law at Christmas time so that Oscar nominations would fuel box office sales.
“With the early (Oscar voting) this year, we fell short. There’s a lot to do for Academy members and I don’t know how many members we got to. We just plain ran out of people who had seen this movie,” Weinstein told Time Magazine, which hits newsstands on Feb. 2.
But “Cold Mountain” did win seven other Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences including best actor for Jude Law and best supporting actress for Renee Zellweger.
It is the first time in 12 years that Walt Disney Co.’s Miramax does not have a best picture nominee at the Oscars but the studio still racked up the most nominations of any studio — 15 — for the third year in a row.
Citing the fact that the Oscars will be held in February this year instead of March, Weinstein told Newsweek, “I think the whole positioning of movies has changed because of this.” Other than “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” every best-picture nominee was released prior to December, he said.
As a result, Weinstein said Miramax would move up the release of J.M. Barrie’s “Neverland” starring Johnny Depp to October and would aim to release Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” in November instead of late December.
Weinstein also told Time that he will be directing his own film “pretty soon, probably the fall.” He said the script is finished and the film will be produced by Martin Scorsese and Anthony Minghella, who directed “Cold Mountain.”
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