The Academy & Marketing To Win An Oscar

Just last week Michelle Obama, first lady, philanthropist, style icon the list goes on and on, spoke to a group of television and screenwriters in Washington, D.C., praising the movie and television industry for celebrating its representations of LGBT life.

“Every day, through the movies and TV shows and ads you all create, you have the power to shape our understanding of the world around us,” said Mrs. Obama.  “You challenge our most strongly held beliefs. You influence our opinions on current events, just take an issue like gay rights.  It wasn’t all that long ago that this was a third-rail kind of issue, not just in politics, but in entertainment as well. It was considered sensitive, even controversial. But in the early ‘90s, that started to change. Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay character in Philadelphia...And today, The Imitation Game is up for Best Picture at the Oscars”

First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at the Got Your 6 event for screenwriters in Washington, D.C

From this quote and further into her speech she hails the academy specifically for its diverse range of LGBT winner and films. So with the Oscars just around the corner once again, it’s interesting to look at how well the academy is doing in relation to its portrayals of LGBT life. With my own research I found that shockingly only one openly gay actor has won an Oscar, Sir John Gielgud for his performance in Arthur, thirty three years ago. With the only gay actress being Jodie foster, which is debatable as no ones entire sure if she is openly out or not. Straight actors playing gay have had better figures, within the past twelve years we have had ten nominations for actors playing gay and lesbian roles (two of which were transsexual with no bisexual or queer nominations at all) disappointedly only four won. In the same twelve years five LGBT themed films have been up for best picture, all of which lost out. 

(Check out this graph for more details) 

So how do film distributers sell these, rarely academy award successful films.  Well The Imitation Game is a perfect example, The Weinstein Co. originally promoted The Imitation Game as a period thriller that paid tribute to Alan Turing, the father of modern computing. But on Jan. 19, appearing on CBS This Morning, Harvey Weinstein introduced a new tactic, arguing that though Turing received a royal pardon in 2013 for his conviction of being homosexual ( a crime at the time), he deserved to be honored by the British government. He added the government also should pardon the thousands of British citizens convicted under laws forbidding homosexuality. Weinstein, even went so far to say he "was willing to give up my own CBE" to make that happen.

Harvey Weinstein appearing on CBS This Morning to discuss The Imitation Game

Two days later at a screening for BAFTA members, Stephen Fry joined in stating how he felt Alan Turing should be pardoned. The following day the Human Rights Campaign also flew its rainbow flag for the film, honouring the film at a gala dinner in New York, taking out full page advertisements in The New York Times and more. The ads stated clearly “Honour this movie. Honour this man. And honour the movement to bring justice to the other 49,000”.
The strategy for the oscars was clear, support gay rights? Well vote The Imitation Game. Agree that these innocent men should be pardoned? Well vote The Imitation Game. 

This marketing strategy is not new, attaching a movie to a worthy cause is clear through 12 Years a Slave last years black empowerment epic and the success of Sliver Linings Playbook which purposefully set about promoting the film through mental health legislations and laws.    
However, just when it looks like the academy’s making mild improvements to be ‘gay-friendly’, with three years in a row homosexual hosts, the academy is still ignoring gay movies. This year several gay-themed films, were pushed to the back of the votes. Such as Pride, the British drama comedy about gay activists who lent their support to striking mine workers, and The Case Against 8, the documentary about the legal battle to overturn California's ban against same-sex marriage, missing out on the final five in the documentary shortlist. Whereas The Imitation Game, which did get the academy's notice, has been under heavy debate to whether the final result of the film could be sold as a gay film, as it didn’t really show Alan Turing’s sexuality all that much (something I would personally agree with).

So for a perfectly well-made historical drama with an impeccable cast, a shadow of previous winner The King’s Speech, it seems silly that the academy are finding this a hard sell. Or that it must be sold as a film simply not about sexuality or the opposite, a completely whistle blowing homosexual film. Can’t we have a Oscar winner that doesn’t focus on the politics behind the film, a film which doesn’t win for being about the struggles of homosexuality or being about the struggles of racism, but have a winner who wins because it’s simply a good film. That would be true equality. 

For more info follow the links

• The Imitation Game playing the gay card?
• Michelle Obama Praises Homosexuality on TV
• LGBT themes Oscar Noms
• History of LGBT Films at the Oscars