What went wrong in the Oscar campaign for A Star Is Born?

In October, A Star Is Born was the favorite to win Best Picture. Now, it may walk home empty-handed. How did A Star Is Born go from Oscar favorite to Oscar afterthought?

Ever since Lady Gaga belted out her powerful high note during “Shallow,” back when the trailer premiered in June, there was no film in 2018 that had more hype leading up to its release than A Star Is Born. The anticipation continued to build following the trailer’s premiere thanks to the film’s stars, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. The fact that the film involved Cooper’s directorial debut as well as Gaga’s acting debut only added fuel to the fire.

Then, the press tour began to explode once A Star Is Born was shown at major film festivals in Toronto and Venice. Lady Gaga’s famous quote of “There can be 100 people in a room and 99 of them don’t believe in you, but all it takes is one and it just changes your whole life” began to get the meme treatment, which only added more publicity to the film.

A Star Is Born checks all of the boxes when it comes to describing the “perfect Oscar movie.” It’s both critically acclaimed and a financially successful, having grossed over $420 million worldwide. The film includes two gigantic stars in Cooper and Gaga. It’s a heartbreaking love story with catchy music that has an enormous amount of mass appeal. The Academy took note of all the above and rewarded A Star Is Born with eight Oscar nominations, which is the second most this year.

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If you were to poll most critics and fans back in October, A Star Is Born would be one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win Best Picture. However, that narrative has changed drastically throughout awards season. The film has not won the Best Picture award at a major awards show, Bradley Cooper was snubbed of the Best Director nomination, and Lady Gaga will probably lose Best Actress to Glenn Close. What seemed like a shoe-in to win multiple awards now may only win one Oscar in the Best Original Song category.

My question is simple. What went wrong? How did A Star Is Born go from Oscar favorite to Oscar afterthought? For starters, receiving eight Oscar nominations does not make you an afterthought per say, but walking home with potentially one Oscar after months of hype and anticipation behind the film is somewhat disappointing.

Start with the release date of A Star Is Born, which premiered in national theaters on October 5, 2018. It’s quite possible that due to the early October release date as opposed to late October, November, or December, A Star Is Born came out swinging right from the start and the expectations were almost too high to live up to. As more films started to premiere in the coming weeks, voters had more time to dissect A Star Is Born and see more films so consequently, the film’s Best Picture status went south. Also, keep in mind that this is the fourth remake of the original A Star Is Born from 1937 so it is possible that voters chose not to reward a familiar story that has been told many times before.

By far, the biggest reason as to why A Star Is Born may walk home disappointed on Sunday involves the Oscar campaign from Bradley Cooper. Giving a good performance is easy, but campaigning for a nomination and then winning is where the real work begins. Most of the time, the best campaign, not the best performance, wins the Oscar. “People who are voting want to feel that those nominated have some interest in being voted for,” Oscar specialist Cynthia Swartz told Public Relations Tactics in an article as to how Oscar campaigns work. Voters want to feel like they matter so therefore, nominees have to put in the effort to show that they want to win

However, if there’s one thing Bradley Cooper hates, it’s press tours and being in the spotlight. Cooper did some press for the film in the weeks leading up to the release, but Cooper seemed to recycle answers throughout his interviews, failing to really open up about the film in the way critics wanted him to do. A New York Times piece titled “Bradley Cooper Is Not Really Into This Profile” highlighted Cooper’s uneasiness and almost failure to play ball with the press.

In order to win an Oscar, it must be a priority to shape a narrative that can be at the heart of your campaign during awards season. A Star Is Born never shaped a successful narrative in their campaign. Unfortunately, recent appearances with Oprah and Stephen Colbert as well joining Lady Gaga onstage at her Las Vegas residency might be a little too late for Cooper.

A Star Is Born was one of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful films of 2018. In a few years, not rewarding A Star Is Born with more awards very well may be a popular topic of discussion. Not every film can win an Oscar, but A Star Is Born will end up disappointed if they walk home empty-handed.

A Star Is Born is available to stream on iTunes.