What Went Wrong with the Award's Campaign for "A Star Is Born"

[WildAmerican 13,672]

Interesting article from the Hollywood reporter detailing what might have gone wrong with the campaign for ASIB. It was seen and built to be so much more than it actually is (in terms of awards), and this article has some interesting thoughts regarding what happened. I agree with what it says about how while the movie touches on societal issues, it became the subject "of memes, not think-pieces"

 

Food for thought.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-can-a-star-is-born-still-pull-a-best-picture-win-1185329?utm_source=twitter

[KleinGa 18,177]

"So, to borrow the title of a memoir by a former frontrunner in another field whose plans, back in 2016, went off the rails: What happened?"

Why did I laugh but also cried at this? 

[Lucas 20,606]

Well the reasons they said were pretty sad... The fact that the first screening was interupted 20mins, it doesn't reflect well Hollywood, Gaga's "100 ppl in room" meme, it has been done before etc... Voters shouldn't be influenced by such factors, it should all be about the movie itself, not the events surrounding it

[KleinGa 18,177]

2 minutes ago, GagaInTheZone said:

Voters shouldn't be influenced by such factors, it should all be about the movie itself, not the events surrounding it

I agree but unfortunately, the voters usually vote on their preferences. I read in other places that some voters are turned off my the 'stans' who support the movie and generally are not taking the movie seriously because of that..... 

Its a mess

[geusst1235 5,398]

The voters should not be influenced by stupid things such as memes or Gaga's "100 people" line.Why is it all of a sudden a problem when she does it yet I've seen dozens (literally) of actors do similar things on their own press tours as well.If something like that genuinely alters the voters decisions then they shouldn't even be voting in the first place.

[Gagaism 8,605]

Is this LIFE? 

[PunkTheFunk 121,511]

It peaked way too soon. I think had it been released in November or December we would be in a much different position.

[Fanta 5,019]

Now I did go in on Gaga for a bit about her speeches and the dramatics, but these voters sound like complete assh*les. It isn’t a film awarding ceremony if you’re voting based on viral tweets and red carpet interviews. The fact that these are the ‘pros’ voting is shocking to me. They should be embarrassed.

[LilyLark 9,694]

5 minutes ago, Christian Haines said:

The voters should not be influenced but stupid things such as memes or Gaga's "100 people" line.Why is it all of a sudden a problem when she does it yet I've seen dozens (literally) of actors do similar things on their own press tours as well.If something like that genuinely alters the voters decisions then they shouldn't even be voting in the first place.

I follow Oscar season, and this article plus other things I've seen on twitter—yeah, the meme has come up, but they blame the early release (this ain't the first time a film has peaked too early), the fact that it is a remake and the Judy Garland film is beloved by some, WB mishandling the campaign, and Bradley's NYT interview/not doing enough campaigning more than Gaga. I know as stans we focus on Gaga, but it's relatively mild all things considered (tbf, I expected some people to be worse towards her) and the anonymous Oscar ballots/race analysis is always incredibly petty and mean.

I do think they f*ckd up with the Golden Globes. Sometimes the people behind awards campaigns feel like the musical/comedy section isn't taken as "seriously"..... and there was already the impression that ASIB was more of a commercial film, so they went for the drama category like BoRap. But I suspect if they had entered it into the musical or comedy category, Bradley probably would have won Best Actor, Gaga may have beat Olivia for Best Actress, and it may have won the Best Pic. Anyway, the narrative wouldn't be "snubbed/loser" because it likely would have at least picked up one more award, possibly more, outside of Best Song. But after they didn't win, and they were sitting right up front, that narrative sort of stuck to the film.

[kabirartfling 9,063]

Well whatever happens, the movie is iconic, gaga's legacy is stronger than ever, Bradley got millions of new admirers for his work in all fields, the songs are already classics too.

It's a win already, we won.

 

Also the whole meme was actually just a great promo for the movie and also showcased how humble gaga is.

[LilyLark 9,694]

7 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

It peaked way too soon. I think had it been released in November or December we would be in a much different position.

Yes, Scott only briefly address it in this article, but I've seen that on film twitter. If they had held off until a mid or late November release date, instead of going for the window in which to make the most possible money (which WB does a lot to their films)....it would have been a different story.  I remember a few years ago there was some film that released in October, like ASIB, that everyone thought would sweep....but it came up empty and the idea was that it peaked too soon.

I think WB was trying to stay out of BH, which opened in the beginning of Nov, and FB, which opened in mid Nov. 

[Chickens in Malibu 7,873]

I don't think Gaga was ever going to win against Glenn Close. Golderby simply overhyped her and exaggerated her chances.

But the 100 people meme, and the things "fans" did like the venom v. ASIB, definitely gave the detractors great tools to use to hurt ASIB chances.

People don't realize that celebrities and voters also use google. They google Lady Gaga and see those embarassing buzzfeed headlines like we do.

But most importantly, Bradley failed to campaign effectively for his categories. There's no narrative behind ASIB. The sole time mental health was addressed is in Gaga's grammy speech. He never gave the movie a strong narrative.

[LilyLark 9,694]

11 minutes ago, Fanta said:

Now I did go in on Gaga for a bit about her speeches and the dramatics, but these voters sound like complete assh*les. It isn’t a film awarding ceremony if you’re voting based on viral tweets and red carpet interviews. The fact that these are the ‘pros’ voting is shocking to me. They should be embarrassed.

Did you ever used to read THR's anonymous Oscar ballots? They would interview anonymous voters and they would tell who and why they voted for. Holy sh*t, the people were terrible. I think they stopped publishing them because people basically said "this is bullying," although I saw a pretty mild version in the L.A. Times without any of the typical nastiness...so either they interviewed nice people, or cut out a lot of the interview.  There was that NYT bit, tho.

The most racist/sexist THR anonymous ballot was some voter calling Taraji "that Black woman" and saying she used to hate her because she was a "TV girl who posed too hard" but that she liked her in Hidden Figures and that won her over.  Also, quite a few made some gross as hell, sly comments about Harvey whenever an actress in one of his films was nominated, which is extra disturbing because it indicates they knew he was raping/molesting/harassing women.  Nothing will top Hathahate, though.  I was babysitting my teenage cousin for the day (who was too young to remember it) and we were talking about the Oscars and she didn't believe me when I said that even MSM news outlets were running these insane, misogynistic op-eds against her, and I had to google it to show her.

[DiamondAngel 5,044]

13 minutes ago, LilyLark said:

I follow Oscar season, and this article plus other things I've seen on twitter—yeah, the meme has come up, but they blame the early release (this ain't the first time a film has peaked too early), the fact that it is a remake and the Judy Garland film is beloved by some, WB mishandling the campaign, and Bradley's NYT interview/not doing enough campaigning more than Gaga. I know as stans we focus on Gaga, but it's relatively mild all things considered (tbf, I expected some people to be worse towards her) and the anonymous Oscar ballots/race analysis is always incredibly petty and mean.

I do think they f*ckd up with the Golden Globes. Sometimes the people behind awards campaigns feel like the musical/comedy section isn't taken as "seriously"..... and there was already the impression that ASIB was more of a commercial film, so they went for the drama category like BoRap. But I suspect if they had entered it into the musical or comedy category, Bradley probably would have won Best Actor, Gaga may have beat Olivia for Best Actress, and it may have won the Best Pic. Anyway, the narrative wouldn't be "snubbed/loser" because it likely would have at least picked up one more award, possibly more, outside of Best Song. But after they didn't win, and they were sitting right up front, that narrative sort of stuck to the film.

What Bradley NYT interview? I didn't hear anything about that! 

[LilyLark 9,694]

15 minutes ago, kabirartfling said:

Well whatever happens, the movie is iconic, gaga's legacy is stronger than ever, Bradley got millions of new admirers for his work in all fields, the songs are already classics too.

It's a win already, we won.

 

Also the whole meme was actually just a great promo for the movie and also showcased how humble gaga is.

Yeah, it's still a win. A commercial and critical success that racked up numerous nominations. And LBR, many of us did not expect it to come even close to what it ended up being.

I do kind of hate this narrative that just because a well regarded film doesn't win doesn't mean it's a failure or some shocking disaster or snub—there was a milder version of this a few years ago with Carol, which was nominated for several Oscars and a lot of awards but walked away with nothing like ASIB despite originally being seen as a front runner. Winning isn't everything.