The screeners are coming.
Correction: the screeners are already here.
A hefty package of awards hopefuls from Warner Bros. showed up at the homes of Oscar, guild and critics award voters this week, putting a capper of sorts on a two-week barrage of DVDs that is clearly designed to do one thing: make sure that if any voters have time off during the Thanksgiving holiday, they’ll have plenty of movies to watch.
The heavy push is coming earlier than usual this year, as befits an award season that most participants think is on an accelerated schedule all around.
The Warners package includes consensus Best Picture nominee “Inception,” along with contenders “The Town” and “Hereafter,” Animated Feature hopeful “Legend of the Guardians,” and possible below-the-line heavyweight “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.”
Last week found Sony sending out “The Social Network,” and a Fox Searchlight package that included “Black Swan” and “127 Hours.” Focus Features sent “The Kids Are All Right,” which is already on DVD, and “Somewhere,” which isn’t even in theaters yet. Ditto “Biutiful” and “Casino Jack,” which hit the mail before they hit the theaters.
“Toy Story 3” sent screeners, and also gave them out at a couple of parties. “How to Train Your Dragon” did the same, with DreamWorks Animation clearly unwilling to trail Disney/Pixar in the screener race.
Sony Classics got the jump on everybody back in September, starting the ball rolling with “Animal Kingdom.” But they’re still active, sending “Made in Dagenham,” "Another Year," “Inside Job” and "The Illusionist" this week.
With six weeks to go in the year, most of the films thought to be serious Best Picture contenders are already in the hands of voters. The exceptions are Paramount’s big two, “The Fighter” and “True Grit”; the Weinstein Company’s releases, including “The King’s Speech” and “Blue Valentine”; and Lionsgate’s “Rabbit Hole.”
So why the rush?
Studio and publicity folks I talked to offered a variety of reasons:
The move to 10 nominations, which last year was an unknown factor, serves to open up the race to more films — and even with many of the slots seemingly spoken-for this year, a wide variety of competitors have legitimate hopes for those last couple of nominations …
But that's dependent on voters actually seeing them. Those 10 blank lines require conscientious voters to watch more movies, which takes more time …
But the awards season is shorter this year than last. The Oscars are back in February after a year in early March — and, more crucially for this first round, the nominations polls close on January 14, a full nine days earlier than the previous year …
And there's potentially less free time because Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, which in many cases may lead to fewer days off from work.
“I think there’s a feeling this year that if you wait until December, you’ve waited too long,” said one publicist working a slate of films that arrived in mailboxes during the past two weeks.
Of course, there are risks; “Black Swan” and “Inception,” for instance, are clearly designed to be seen on a big screen, and sending the former film to voters before it has opened in theaters might not allow it to put its best foot forward.
But if the choice is between a voter seeing the movie at home or not seeing it at all, it’s a no brainer.
And that leads to one more question: which of these films go best with leftover turkey?
