Netflix is launching a $30million public relations offensive to drum up Oscar support for the hit drama Roma - an astounding sum that is twice what the streaming giant spent to make it.
The company’s campaign is sparking a backlash from those who believe that a film streamed on television should not be considered for Best Picture.
The black and white film directed by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron has garnered almost universal critical acclaim.
The film, which is considered an ode to the director's childhood in 1970s Mexico City, was the big winner at last month’s Critics' Choice Awards.
Roma won trophies for best picture, best foreign-language film, and for both director and cinematography for Cuaron.
Roma, a Spanish-language film set in 1970s Mexico City, is nominated for 10 Academy Awards
Shot in black and white, and filmed in Spanish and the indigenous Mixtec language, Roma is a semi-autobiographical chronicle of a year in the life of Cuaron's family and his childhood nanny.
Roma, whose title is a reference to a posh Mexico City neighborhood, earlier won two Golden Globes and is a leading contender for an Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony, which will take place this Sunday in Los Angeles.
In the past, film studios have spent tens of millions of dollars to promote certain movies for awards.
In 2011, Columbia Pictures spent $25million to lobby the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to give the Best Picture statue to The Social Network.
While the film about the early days of Facebook was indeed nominated, it eventually lost to The King’s Speech.
The executive producer of The King’s Speech is Harvey Weinstein, the now-disgraced film mogul who stands accused of sexually harassing or raping scores of women.
Weinstein was notorious for the lengths to which he would go to lobby the 8,000-member Academy to consider movies that his studio, Miramax, produced and distributed.
He would host parties and screenings for Academy members, even in retirement homes where the members lived.
This year, Netflix is pulling out all the stops to win the big prize for Roma.
It has paid for billboards and posters all over Los Angeles urging the Academy to vote for Roma.
Netflix, the streaming giant which spent $15million to create Roma, is spending at least twice that amount to promote the film to the 8,000-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who will decide the winner of
