Studios Are Trying to Catch Oscar’s Eye

The Academy Award nominations won’t be announced until Feb. 9, but Oscar season is in full swing this week in Hollywood. From major studios to small independents, marketing departments have launched aggressive advertising campaigns touting their films in the two major Hollywood trade papers. Whether the films deserve an Oscar nod is another question. “This is the time of year when everyone wants to look like they’re in the game,” said Lynne Segall, the Hollywood Reporter’s associate publisher. “They want to put out to the industry that they support their product.” Both the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety will be filled with “For Your Consideration” ads from now to late January. In addition to academy members, the ads are aimed at members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., who this week are mulling over their ballots for the Golden Globe awards. The Golden Globe nominations, which have become important in recent years as a studio marketing tool, will be announced Dec. 17. Segall said the trade press has become a key focus of Oscar campaigns because the academy now restrains studios from going to elaborate lengths to catch the attention of voting members, such as delivering videos in ornate, bejeweled boxes. With the playing field level, studios like Miramax Films, Fine Line Features and Gramercy Pictures, which have smaller films to promote, look to the trades to communicate their message. “What the two trade papers do is get the buzz going as to what is out there and what are the contenders,” Segall said. Not all the films touted in the ads are worthy of Oscar consideration, however. Some ads are taken out merely to massage egos or make sure that a studio stays in good graces with an important director or box office star. “Every year you see a handful of campaigns that don’t withstand the smell test,” said one studio source, “but everybody knows exactly what is going on. They smile, but they should be giving that money to a good charity.”

Billboard Show’s Bottom Line Is Top Dollar

The real winners at the Billboard Music Awards tonight will be at the cash register, not the podium. The list of performers for the event at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has grown crowded in recent weeks as some big-name artists--including Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston--have joined the party. Why the crush of interest? As usual, the answer is exposure and sales. The show, which will be broadcast by Fox at 8 p.m. on KTTV-TV, is the only one in the ever-expanding music awards season that also falls in the holiday retail season, and artists who have performed in past years have seen major spikes--40% or more in some cases--in album sales in the days after the show, according to Bob Bain, the show’s executive producer. That explains why the relative upstart of music award shows (which bases its winners purely on sales and airplay totals) can present a line-up that also includes Aerosmith, Shania Twain, Hole, Lauryn Hill and the Backstreet Boys. Not bad for a program in its ninth year that was once famous mainly for its brevity and rowdiness. “It’s an embarrassment of riches this year,” says Bain. “The Grammys are in a league of their own . . . but record companies have recognized our show as a very important tool in the largest selling season of the year.”

‘Surprising’ Images to Honor NAACP’s 90th

Nominations for the 1999 NAACP Image Awards will be announced Thursday, previewing an event that will commemorate two historic milestones for the civil rights organization: The awards ceremony will be celebrating its 30th year, while the NAACP will be marking its 90th anniversary. The awards event, which will take place Feb. 14 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and will be broadcast later on Fox, will tie in closely with the NAACP birthday, organizers say. “There will be a lot of surprises,” said one insider. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, who has stated he wants to increase the involvement and input of the national group in Hollywood, will participate in Thursday’s announcements, which will feature nominations in film, music, television and literature. The Image Awards will also honor blues legend B.B. King and opera great Kathleen Battle, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Movies and TV projects expected to receive nominations include “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “He Got Game,” “Living Out Loud,” the upcoming Maya Angelou drama, “Down in the Delta,” and CBS’ critically lauded miniseries “Mama Flora’s Family.” More uncertain in terms of its chances is “Beloved,” the epic slavery drama from Oprah Winfrey that recently fizzled at the box office. Winfrey, co-star Danny Glover and director Jonathan Demme may get nods from the nomination committee, but black audiences largely failed to support the dramatization of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

--Compiled by Times staff writers and contributors

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