Oscar Campaigns Hit the Beach

It’s a race that could give Las Vegas oddsmakers nightmares.

As 1998 dwindles down to its final weeks, the only sure thing about this year’s Academy Awards competition is that Steven Spielberg’s World War II battle drama, “Saving Private Ryan,” starring Tom Hanks, is a virtual lock for one of the five best picture nominations.

But beyond that, say many who closely monitor the Oscar race, the remaining four nominations are up for grabs. For that reason, 1998 is shaping up as the year of the dark horse in films.

Whether it’s “Life Is Beautiful,” the grand jury prizewinner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, or two Elizabethan-era movies--”Shakespeare in Love” and “Elizabeth”--even smaller contenders know they have a fighting chance this year.

As a result, independent film distribution companies and art-house banners housed at major studios are cranking up their publicity machines and Internet Web sites and flooding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with cassette tapes in hopes of being nominated for Hollywood’s highest honor.

If the smaller films succeed in garnering a nomination--and there is no guarantee at this point they will, with some heavyweight studio films yet to come--the current Oscar race could mirror 1996, when “Independents’ Day” stunned Hollywood as the academy nominated four smaller films for best picture: “The English Patient” (which eventually won best picture), “Fargo,” “Secrets & Lies” and “Shine.” Only “Jerry Maguire” from Columbia Pictures represented the majors.

“Last year, [when “Titanic” swept the awards], we were fighting over the fifth slot,” said Lindsay Law, president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, who is touting “Waking Ned Devine” for this year’s contest. “It’s much more wide open this year. The independents are just as likely to get those slots as the studios are.”

“I don’t think anyone, even the pundits, can name five pictures that are sure-fire best picture candidates this year,” said Dennis Rice, president of worldwide marketing at October Films, which has high hopes for “Hilary and Jackie,” starring Emily Watson (“Breaking the Waves”).

So, which of the smaller films stands a chance?

Miramax is pushing “Life Is Beautiful.” Directed by Roberto Benigni, it stars Benigni as an Italian Jewish father who shelters his son from the horrors of internment during the Nazi era. Its tragic themes and historical scope should play well with the academy, and the film has been a hit with audiences as well--it could end up the highest-grossing foreign language film ever.

One intriguing contest looming is that between two Elizabethan films--”Shakespeare in Love,” starring Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow from Miramax, and “Elizabeth,” starring Cate Blanchett from Gramercy. One film may be nominated for best picture, but can two?

Fox Searchlight, perhaps hoping to reignite the spark of last year’s surprise British comedy “The Full Monty,” which grossed more than $250 million worldwide, is pushing the Irish comedy “Waking Ned Devine” this time around, but the film is only being shown in limited release so far.

October Films believes it has a contender in “Hilary and Jackie,” but it also is touting “High Art,” starring Ally Sheedy, and the Merchant Ivory film “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries.”

Fine Line Features has two offerings: “Hurlyburly,” starring Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey in a dark comedic look at Hollywood, and “The Theory of Flight,” starring Kenneth Branagh as a reluctant community-service caretaker of invalid Helena Bonham Carter, who is the victim of a terminal neuromuscular disease.

Along with two critical favorites, the Brazilian drama “Central Station” and John Boorman’s “The General,” Sony Pictures Classics has the popular indie comedy “The Opposite of Sex” as longshot Oscar hopefuls.

But others caution that it’s way too early to count out the big studios.

Gramercy Pictures President Russell Schwartz acknowledged that it looks good for independents right now, but that could change in a flash when late-year entries finally reach the big screen.

“I think everybody thinks they have a chance this year,” Schwartz said, “but at the end of the day, it still could be a predominately studio-driven awards.”

“I remember one year when all the nominees came from the end of the year and were studio pictures,” said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics.

Still to come from the majors are such films as Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” from 20th Century Fox, Chris Columbus’ “Stepmom” from Columbia Pictures, Steven Zaillian’s “A Civil Action” from Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, Tom Shadyac’s “Patch Adams” from Universal Studios, Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail” from Warner Bros. and the full-length animated feature “The Prince of Egypt” from DreamWorks SKG.

But of all of these, only “The Thin Red Line,” a World War II drama set in the Pacific, is creating Oscar buzz for best picture, even though the film isn’t even finished.

“You’ve Got Mail,” for example, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, looks to be a commercial hit, but is it worthy of a best picture nomination? “The Prince of Egypt” has high hopes of being nominated, but when it was screened for members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., sources say, some thought it only so-so.

The film that could rival “Saving Private Ryan” is Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” starring Jim Carrey. But while the Paramount Pictures film drew widespread critical acclaim, it isn’t seen as having a lock on a best picture nomination.

“I don’t see anybody in love with anything,” said one industry source. “ ‘The Truman Show’ they liked. They were impressed by ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ But it isn’t like it was in years past, when they loved ‘Apollo 13,’ ‘Babe,’ ‘Il Postino’ and ‘Sense & Sensibility.’ ”

Some films that were seen as possible Academy Award contenders before their release have sunk like a stone in water, much like “The Crucible” did in 1996.

One of the more prominent big-studio hopefuls this fall was “Beloved,” a slavery-era drama starring Oprah Winfrey that received widespread publicity when it was released by Touchstone Pictures. But the film died at the box office.

“It was a monumental disaster,” said one source. “They don’t reward monumental disasters.”

So, Disney is also trotting out its other big guns, like “A Civil Action” and the computer-animated film “A Bug’s Life,” as well as a real dark horse candidate called “Rushmore,” which became a darling of critics when it was shown at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. The film is being released in Los Angeles and New York Friday for one week only for Oscar contention, then gets a wide release in February.

Turmoil in the executive suites at Universal could be a problem for the studio’s Oscar campaign. A film that might have been a best picture candidate, “One True Thing,” failed at the box office; now the studio is pushing “Patch Adams,” starring Robin Williams.

Over at Fox, executives are going all out to promote “Bulworth,” Warren Beatty’s rap-themed personal political statement that grossed a disappointing $26.4 million at the box office. Beatty has been a perennial favorite with academy voters with such films as “Reds,” “Bugsy” and “Heaven Can Wait.” Fox is reissuing the film and recently screened it at the Museum of Tolerance in Beverly Hills with Beatty making an appearance.

PolyGram Films is relying on the critical praise bestowed on the special effects to push Robin Williams’ “What Dreams May Come” to a nomination. Paramount is launching a campaign for the dark tale of greed “A Simple Plan,” which stars Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton.

United Artists, meanwhile, is promoting John Frankenheimer’s action-filled secret agent-themed movie “Ronin,” while New Line Cinema is waging Oscar campaigns for “Pleasantville,” “American History X” and “Living Out Loud.”