The Awards for the Best Ads Asking for Academy Awards This Year
This year's propaganda, too often limited to the pages of Variety and its ilk, was eye-catching enough to merit awards for the ads themselves. Here are The Atlantic Wire's First Annual For-Your-Consideration Awards.
.Oscar nomination day is almost here — Thursday! — but the films in contention have been campaigning for months with the annual barrage of full-page ads taken out by their studios in the Hollywood trade publications. And this year's propaganda, too often limited to the pages of Variety and its ilk, was eye-catching enough to merit awards for the ads themselves. Here are The Atlantic Wire's First Annual For-Your-Consideration Awards.
The Most-Like-the-Experience-of-Seeing-the-Actual-Movie Award: Les Misérables
Much has been made of director Tom Hooper's frequent closeups in the musical epic, and this ad can't help but remind us of his camera work. This ad is loud, in your face, and maudlin, just like Les Miz.
The Minimalist Award: (tie) Flight and Lincoln
In shilling for Flight director Robert Zemeckis, this ad takes the opposite approach to the busy Les Miz ad above. It's simple and serves to remind us of all of the movies Zemeckis has made that we like. (Aw! Back to the Future.)
This Lincoln ad says it all without saying very much: major, well-received biopic about an instantly recognizable historical figure. Just give them Oscars already.
The Technical Award: Life of Pi
So that tiger isn't real? (Well, it was and wasn't.) Impress us by showing how you made something out of nothing, why don't you, Life of Pi.
The Enigmatic Award: The Master
The Master's Rorschach test-inspired ad is as confusing as the movie itself, and yet also aesthetically lovely.
The One-We'd-Most-Like-on-Our-Wall Award: Moonrise Kingdom
For some people, life would be better if everything around them looked like a Wes Anderson movie. This ad captures Anderson's candy-colored, dream-like world, and would double nicely as a poster for your bedroom. (This other ad for the same film comes in a close second.)
The Throwback Award: Django Unchained
The film itself is packed with movie references and this ad's graphics are reminder of an earlier era.
The Strictly-Franchise Award: Skyfall
Now that is classic Bond.
The WTF Award: The Mystical Laws
There's something that seems almost a little unfair including this ad, but we couldn't resist. As reviewed by Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter, the movie was described as "a religious tract masquerading as a Japanese anime fantasy" executive produced by the founder of a religion called "Happy Science."