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Joe Russo, who is part of the beloved Russo Brothers directing team, has claimed that Harvey Weinstein was instrumental in changing the narrative against mainstream blockbuster films at the Academy Awards.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Joe Russo argued that the approach of discounting commercially successful movies in favor of art-house cinema began with Harvey Weinstein’s Oscar campaign strategies in the mid-1990s.
Mainstream films often used to win big at the Oscars, Russo said, at least until the mid-1990s. But Weinstein’s brand of promotion was a game changer in that it cast independent films as superior to moneymaking blockbusters. Russo said:
"This trend was started by Harvey Weinstein, he vilified mainstream movies to champion the art films he pushed for Oscar campaigns. Popular films were winning Oscars before the mid-Nineties, then Weinstein started mudslinging campaigns."
Harvey Weinstein was famous for his clever tactics when it came to awards season marketing. Perhaps the most famous instance of this was when Shakespeare in Love won instead of Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture in the 1999 Academy Awards.
Beyond Weinstein’s impact, Joe Russo also responded to more general criticism of mainstream cinema, particularly the notion that Marvel films and other big-budget productions are killing the movie industry. He denied these claims, stating:
"Like this argument that Marvel movies were killing cinema. Well, Marvel movies seemed to be keeping cinemas open for quite a long time."
A look into the careers of Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
For nearly 30 years, Anthony and Joe Russo have crafted one of the most extraordinary careers in the film industry starting from indie films, television, and, most recently, blockbuster franchises.
Their journey started when Pieces, their 1997 indie debut. Soderbergh served as an executive producer on their 2002 film, Welcome to Collinwood, which gave them the required jump start. The Russo Brothers then moved into television, directing a handful of episodes for FX’s Lucky.
They followed up this success by working for the hit series, Community, where they directed the iconic Paintball episodes. Their pivot to blockbuster filmmaking came out of nowhere when Marvel Studios enlisted them to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
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The movie received critical acclaim, prompting the studio to hire the director duo for Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019), the last of those becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
Since leaving Marvel, the Russo Brothers have founded AGBO, a production company devoted to developing new talent and original content.
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