As usual, Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company made a solid showing at Tuesday morning’s Oscar announcement with “Lion” taking six nominations.
“Lion” received nods for best picture along with supporting actor for Dev Patel, supporting actress for Nicole Kidman, adapted screenplay for Luke Davies, cinematography for Greig Fraser, and score for Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka.
The movie is based on the book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose, telling the story of Brierly’s life from his losing contact with his family in India at the age of five, being adopted by an Australian family, and reuniting with his Indian family more than two decades later.
“Lion” and Michael Keaton’s “The Founder” were TWC’s only awards contenders this year, but “The Founder” was shut out Tuesday morning. “Lion” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and has taken in more than $16 million in two months of North American release.
“Lion” was by far the best performer among TWC’s 2016 releases, which included “Jane Got a Gun,” “Sing Street,” and “Hands of Stone.”
TWC’s top years in the awards races came in 2011 and 2012 when “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist” went back-to-back with wins of the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s managed to score nominations in every year since 2009, when Penelope Cruz won a Best Supporting Actress nomination for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and Kate Winslet won Best Actress for “The Reader.”
In 2010, TWC’s “Inglourious Basterds” scored eight nominations with Cristoph Waltz taking home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. “The King’s Speech” dominated the Oscars in 2011 with four wins and 12 nominations and “The Artist” then won five Oscars from 10 nominations in the following year. TWC’s “The Iron Lady” also took home a Best Actress Oscar in 2012 for Meryl Streep.
TWC titles scored 16 nomination in 2013 — eight for “Silver Linings Playbook,” five for “Django Unchained,” and three for “The Master.” Jennifer Lawrence won the best actress Oscar for “Silver Linings” and Waltz won the supporting actor category for “Django.” Quentin Tarantino also won for the “Django” original screenplay — a category he won in 1995 with Roger Avary for “Pulp Fiction,” released by Miramax while Harvey Weinstein was still running it.
In 2014, TWC’s films took six nominations — four for “Philomena” and two for “August: Osage County,” which scored nominations for Streep and Julia Roberts. The studio’s “The Imitation Game” scored eight nominations in 2015 with Graham Moore winning for Best Adapted Screenplay.
TWC’s “Carol” received six Oscar nominations last year and “The Hateful Eight” took three with Enrico Morricone winning the Academy Award for Best Score.
Harvey and Bob Weinstein left Miramax in 2005 and formed The Weinstein Co. Three Miramax titles under their tenure — “The English Patient,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Chicago,”” — won the Best Picture Oscar.
Harvey Weinstein issued a statement Tuesday about “Lion.”
“‘Lion’ is the company’s 26th Best Picture Nomination in 28 years, and it is just as exciting as the first. I couldn’t be more proud of the entire team. The most important part of this is the effect that ‘Lion’ is having on social issues around the world. Its themes of diversity, love, and unity are very special to me on a personal level. UNICEF said it best — ‘Lion’ is an anthem of hope, love and acceptance.’ That means more to me than anything.”
