Weinstein Co. to offer free movie tickets to SAG Awards voters

Weinstein Co. has come up with a clever way to get its films seen by voters during awards season: free movie tickets.

The company will offer pairs of tickets to SAG-AFTRA voters for any of the company’s films that earn Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, as long as they are still playing in theaters.

The studio is offering the passes to the more-than 100,000 eligible voters through a partnership with online ticket seller Fandango, the companies said on Wednesday.

SAG-AFTRA voters can already catch the movies at special showings or watch them via screeners distributed by the studio, but this move could get more voters to watch the films in theaters.

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“We are very pleased to provide the Weinstein Co. a turnkey solution for helping SAG-AFTRA voters experience nominated performances on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen,” Paul Yanover, president of Fandango, said in a statement.

Weinstein Co. has a handful of movies that have either attracted or are hoping for awards buzz, including “Fruitvale Station,” “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Philomena” and “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” which is getting a limited release this weekend.

The SAG Awards nominations won’t be announced until Dec. 11.

The studio’s “August: Osage County” and “One Chance” will hit cinemas in late December.

Harvey Weinstein has long been known as an expert awards season campaigner. At the Academy Awards, Weinstein Co. had back-to-back wins for best picture for “The King’s Speech” in 2011 and “The Artist” in 2012.

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Twitter: @rfaughnder

ryan.faughnder@latimes.com