Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
by Michael Schulman
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5:31
ABC News examines Oscar campaigns with commentary from author
14K
172
Mar, 2023
Spoiler:
The author compares Oscar campaigns to political campaigns: both have strategists who work year round to reach voters, and both have “campaign stops,” the Santa Barbara film festival and the Golden Globes, for example. Harking back to the “Best Picture” campaign of 1999, Schulman remembers that the epic war film “Saving Private Ryan” was the favorite until Harvey Weinstein mounted such an extensive campaign for “Shakespeare in Love” that the latter ended up winning, launching what ABC calls “an arms race” of campaigning between studios.
28:54
Author gives interview to Book Lust host via video call
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Mar, 2023
Spoiler:
The author says he wanted to give his readers a sense of excitement similar to that of a sporting event, making them feel they were immersed in the Oscar race of a certain year, not knowing what will happen next. He and the interviewer also discuss Hollywood’s famous blacklist of the 1950s, when anything perceived as “un-American” meant career death. During this time a black-listed writer won, under the pseudonym Robert Rich, the Oscar for a category that no longer exists called “Best Motion Picture Story.”
58:36
Zoom chat with author hosted by Dearborn Public Library
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Mar, 2023
Spoiler:
Schulman says he wanted to write about some specific years in which the Oscars reflected a big cultural shift both in Hollywood and beyond, for example the #OscarsSoWhite campaign that began in 2015. He observes that Hollywood is always on “moving ground” and that the first Oscars, in 1929, happened just as silent movies were about to fall prey to “talkies.” He also tells the story of how MGM’s Louis B. Mayer came up with the idea for the Academy while playing a game of solitaire.
10:07
Author gives interview on Oscars and state of the movie industry
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Mar, 2023
Spoiler:
Delving a bit into the history of both the film industry and the Oscars, the author says one thing he wanted to do in the book was to take certain Oscar years and “put them on the couch”; that is, to psychoanalyze them in terms of how the movie industry saw itself at that time. He and the interviewer also discuss the #MeToo movement and whether or not there is now less corruption and sexual harassment in the industry (he says there is less but it still exists).
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