A couple of people have been leaving comments in various “award” posts asking why a movie that isn’t even released in theaters can get award nominations. Good question… the answer is actually pretty simple.
Awards like the Oscars and the Golden Globes aren’t voted on by the general public… so it becomes irrelevant if we’ve seen it yet or not. Those who DO vote have seen the films because they are given copies of them by the studios.
Often, when a studio feels their movie has a real shot at one of the major awards, they will schedule the release date to coincide with Award season time. What that means for them is huge free positive publicity for their movies (getting nominated by the various academies) before they’re even released for the general public to see.
It’s a smart move. The Aviator for instance is going to get a lot more people out to it opening weekend than it otherwise would have because of these nominations it’s racking up.
The only risk the studio takes is that other studios do the same thing, so they’re putting their best films up against other studio’s best films. However, it’s a gamble that usually pays off.
Personally, I have no problem with this little system… because it just seems to make good sense. And good sense is often hard to come by in this industry.
