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The success of Martin Scorsese's The Departed at the Oscars has caused some Hollywood hand-wringing over whether months of costly Oscar campaigning truly pays off.
The Departed took home four awards on Sunday, including best picture and best director, without Scorsese or the film's producers mounting the sort of expensive awards campaign that typically supports Oscar-hopeful movies.
"I said, on this one, let's just relax and make as good a film as we can," Scorsese told reporters backstage after winning his Oscar.
"I was really trying to concentrate on the filmmaking," he said. "If this wasn't in the cards, it wasn't in the cards."
The seemingly uncaring attitude toward an Oscar campaign, which involves advertising and publicity, starkly contrasts to past years when Scorsese and the backers of his previous films The Aviator and Gangs of New York worked hard to win an Academy Award for the director and the movies.
Moreover, it marks a striking contrast to the effort waged on behalf of the musical Dreamgirls by Paramount Pictures and its sister studio DreamWorks. They worked for more than a year cultivating a perception that Dreamgirls would be the movie to beat at the 2006 Oscar sweepstakes.
But when nominations were unveiled in January, Dreamgirls failed to be included among the five best-film nominees despite earning eight nominations overall, more than any other movie.
At Sunday's ceremony, the film about three pop singers rising from rags to riches won only two Oscars - one for Jennifer Hudson as best supporting actress and another for sound mixing.
Best-film nominee Babel, a tale of clashing cultures around the globe that was backed by the Paramount Vantage studio, also waged an aggressive Oscar campaign, earned seven nominations but only one award for best musical score.
Too much hype?
Oscar campaigns typically involve advertisements in newspapers, magazines and on television touting critical praise and early awards. Interviews with nominees generally follow the ads and, of course, there are numerous Hollywood parties honoring nominees in the months ahead of February's Oscars.
The campaigns can cost millions of dollars, but they also help boost box office. Moreover, winning awards can spur DVD sales and bring higher fees in television and other markets.
"I was actually the one involved in Gangs of New York and producing The Aviator, which really did need nominations to drive box office," Departed producer Graham King told reporters following the Oscar win.
Still, being considered the world's top film and filmmaker by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences carries a cachet that directors, writers, producers, actors and many others covet, so people typically work hard to win the award.
But Hollywood watchers said the nearly 6,000 Oscar voters, who are all industry professionals, do not like to be told what movies are the best. They want to decide on their own, and the backers for Departed let them do exactly that.
"It was just a decision to let the movie speak for itself, and fortunately we're in a position where we have a movie that can speak for itself," said Departed screenwriter William Monahan, who won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
