Awards PR Campaigns with Hollywood Reporter Editor Anne Thompson

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Anne Thompson share how PR firms and in-house public relations staff at motion picture studios structure campaigns to win Oscar nominations, and how social media influences the nominations.  In my entertainment PR days, I escorted nominees on many red carpets during awards season.

In this interview, the deputy film editor of The Hollywood Reporter, Anne Thompson, who writes the weekly film industry column “Risky Business,” globally syndicated by Reuters, talks about the inner workings of the entertainment PR awards campaigning process.

She also contributes to Premiere, Wired, Filmmaker, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The London Observer.

She headed Premiere’s Los Angeles bureau as West Coast Editor. Before joining Premiere, she tracked behind-the-scenes Hollywood as a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and as West Coast Editor at Film Comment Magazine.

A Department of Cinema Studies graduate at New York University, Thompson teaches the fall semester of Sneak Previews at UCLA Extension.  

Awards PR Campaign Insights

04:59 – Go inside the newsroom with Anne Thompson to see what goes on in a day of the life of a deputy film editor.

05:38 – Thompson reveals the changes she has seen covering the movie business for over two decades.

06:57 – Thompson on whether or not the Academy Awards recognize best movies or best PR.

08:11 – Thompson shares why so many Oscar pundits thought Dream Girls would win an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture or Oscar for Best Director.

09:50 – Thompson on the secret behind timing a motion picture marketing campaign for Best Motion Picture.

11:35 – Thompson on the implications of online buzz. Does online buzz or online chatter campaigns impact Academy Award nominations?

15:12 – Thompson on the globalization of Hollywood and the Academy Awards.

16:25 – Thompson shares an insiders perspective on a day at the Oscars, including the red carpet arrivals, the telecast and the Hollywood Oscar party scene.

21:09 – Thompson on the impact of social media influencers in the digital age, a prediction of digital PR’s future, and its impact on movies and their marketing campaigns.

27:04 – End.