One of the best parts of the film awards season, for me, has always been the print advertising artwork of “For Your Consideration” ads in trade publications. They feature a studio advertising department’s best foot forward on creatively reaching the AMPAS audience and generally make for some striking imagery.
Though I have to say, I find myself consistently wondering how much longer they will be a mainstay. The transition to online focus is becoming more and more evident. After all, Paramount Pictures angled its awards budget mainly toward online outlets this year. There wasn’t a single trade ad for “Up in the Air” all year long and it has done just fine for itself this season. I think that’s a first (and an early promise I was surprised to see the studio make good on). It’ll be interesting to see if other studios follow suit.
Anyway, sorry for the tangent. With all this in mind, an annual delight has always been Sasha Stone’s round-up of FYC ads at Awards Daily. A few years ago the gallery duties were handed over to Dora Kappou of Film-Releases.com, who’s done a fine job of presenting the material in an attractive, easily navigable manner. So which films were the cream of the FYC crop this year?
For my money, Warner Bros. had the best visual approach to all of its various contenders, each of them having a distinguishable, attractive style. They even made “Invictus” look like the prestigious film we all thought it would be. I even almost chose this ad for “The Hangover” as my best-in-show FYC of the year. There’s something about the way those honors and the still chosen seems to elevate the frivolous romp ever so slightly.
Focus Features also did well by its contenders, which brings me to my pick for the year’s best FYC ad (and no, it’s not because it’s my favorite film of the year):
It’s a clever usage of one of the film’s more interesting compositions, replacing the chalk-scrawl of figures and theorems with the film’s countless quotes of praise. Class.
It’ll be interesting to see what phase two turns up.
Comments
14 responses to “The year in FYCs”
I LOVE “A SERIOUS MAN” !!
My personal BEST PICTURE of 2009, screw you “locker” “up in the air” and “avatar”..well, not “avatar” :)
I’m a COENS fanboy!! so what!
Seriously
Sony ads for An Education were a disgrace, I really believe they didnt have much faith in the project. I wish Fox searchlight had bought that film.
Many posters look great and others are very simple.
The New York, I Love You poster has an orthography mistake… But whatever
“They even made “Invictus” look like the prestigious film we all thought it would be.”
They also make it look like the exceedingly boring film that it is.
Warner Bros. wins for every scrap of marketing for Where the Wild Things Are, from trailers, to posters, to print ads. Too bad all of that was better than the movie.
i agree that focus’s ad campaigns are always stellar and clever.
Dishonourable mention to Apparition for their appalling campaign (well lack of campaign) for Bright Star
This is by far my favourite:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/FYC/gallery/2009-10/photo.php?id=1792
It speaks for itself.
And this one is gorgeous:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/FYC/gallery/2009-10/photo.php?id=1739
Pity is not getting much love out there.
Interesting to hear that it was a conscious decision by Paramount to not do ads for Up in the Air. Do you know why? They just felt like online was enough, or what?
Gotta say, I was a bit bummed about that, since I too love seeing these ads.. I can also only agree, A Serious Man probably had the best ads. Remains to be seen if they helped.
Those ads are the reason this time of year used to be the only time I’d buy Variety and The Hollywood Reports’ weekly editions from B&N. I loved getting a laugh out of ads for, say, Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Theives as Best Actor or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York for Best Picture and Screenplay.
aspect: I think it was a cost versus reward scenario. I won’t speak for them, but suffice it to say, advertising for Variety ain’t cheap, even by a major studio’s standards.
I LOVE THE PRINT ADS. When I used to work in the industry out west I used to love seeing all those ads every year!