Harvey Weinstein is a fucking idiot.

[Avalonian]

This just blew my mind when I read it… I can’t believe someone is this ignorant.

Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said Thursday he believes the low Oscar-nomination count for “Cold Mountain” was due in part to stories in the U.S. press attacking the moviemakers’ decision to shoot the U.S. Civil War drama in Europe and not America.

Weinstein, who jetted in to support the Anthony Minghella-directed story, which opened the Berlin International Film Festival, hinted that there had been a whispering campaign against the production because the filmmakers chose to shoot largely in lower-cost Romania.

<snip>

Weinstein stopped short of calling it a boycott by voters but said negative press may have resulted in “a move to deny the movie awards.” The film received seven Oscar nominations, but not in the key best picture and director categories.

Oh, and the director, Anthony Minghella, is an idiot too:

Said Minghella: “There has been a reaction in America and a real campaign to stop movies leaving America to shoot."

Let’s look at the Best Picture/Best Director nominations this year for a moment, shall we?

Lost in Translation is nominated for both Best Picture and Best Director, and it was shot entirely in Japan!

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is also up for both categories, and it was shot entirely in New Zealand! (I don’t need a link for that, do I?)

Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles is up for Best Director for City of God, which was shot in Germany, France, and (you guessed it) Brazil!

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is yet another one up for both Best Picture and Best Director this year, and it was shot in Mexico!.

Weinstein and Minghella, just shut the fuck up, before you make yourselves look even more ignorant. In previous years you may have had a point, but this year over half of the nominees for both Best Picture and Best Director were filmed OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES! I’m personally very pleased with the variety of this year’s nominations. Y’all need to wake up and realize that you made a movie which many people just do not like. It happens. Fucking deal with it. Consider yourselves lucky you eked seven nominations out of the stinker; there were better films last year that didn’t fare nearly as well.

Take your sour grapes and your accusations of prejudice and shove them all up your ample asshole. If there’s room next to your head, that is.

Jerks.

[Achilles]

In fairness though, I think everyone knows that harvery Weinstein is a fucking moron.

[Dead_Badger]

Well, to be fair there is a distinction between Cold Mountain and all the films you list, which is that the former is a story specifically set in the US, whereas none of the others are. There’s frequently a negative reaction to films that can be regarded as the “property” of some nation or other - witness the large outcry here in the UK when it turned out the Enigma decoder was really captured by Americans. It’s also fairly plausible that Academy members, many of whom have an obvious vested interest in films being shot in the US, might be irritated and mark a film down on such a basis, even if only subconsciously.

All that said, I haven’t seen the film or read any negative press reaction to its location; I’m just trying to point out why theirs might not be a completely unreasonable POV. I do find this sense of Oscar entitlement annoying, though, and 7 nominations still sounds pretty good to me.

[Avalonian]

@Dead Badger

Well, to be fair there is a distinction between Cold Mountain and all the films you list, which is that the former is a story specifically set in the US, whereas none of the others are.

I thought of that, too, but Minghella’s quote in particular didn’t even touch on that issue.

I just find it especially ironic that, in a year in which the Oscar nominations are finally starting to recognize a better variety of films and a broader cross-section of international films, Weinstein comes up with this crock.

And yes, it’s the subtext of Weinstein and Minghella’s thoughts on the matter, in which they seem to feel their film was entitled to the award nomination, which I find truly arrogant and ignorant.

[jjimm]

@Avalonian

Take your sour grapes and your accusations of prejudice and shove them all up your ample asshole. If there’s room next to your head, that is.

Jerks.

Hollywood’s powerful film and television workers’ union has called for cinemagoers to boycott Cold Mountain because this all-American civil war story was “stolen” by the British and filmed in Romania.

(Admittedly this is from a rather jingoistic article, albeit one that criticises Minghella.)

[Jackmannii]

What about all those movies set in Chicago which were largely filmed in Toronto? (such as “Chicago”).

It would have made more sense to shoot “Cold Mountain” in Bosnia.

[Zebra]

The thing is that Miramax usually has a ton of Oscar noms and they have a very impressive win record as well.

The company, (and Harvey) cleary thought that Cold Mountain would be nominated and it wasn’t. So of course the press has to ask them for reasons and there is now way HW is going to say “I guess people didn’t think the movie was as good as the others”.

Do you see the press going after the makers of The Last Samurai? Are the bugging Tom Cruise as to why he wasn’t nominated? Certainly that film was also expected to get many nominations.

But since HW is a big jerk the press is just giving him a little payback.

[Soul_Brother_Number_Two]

Harvey Weinstein might be a moron, true, but he looks really funny in drag.

What?