Angelina Jolie heads Netflix's $36 million bid for Oscars glory

Angelina Jolie is part of Netflix's multi-million dollar plan to win an Oscar. Photo / Getty Images

It appears to be an underdog tale: a foreign-language film with an unknown cast taking the Oscar nominations by storm.

But behind Roma lies a $25 million (NZ $36.5 million) campaign by Netflix, the US streaming giant, enlisting Angelina Jolie as the film's Hollywood champion.

Netflix has its eye on the best picture Oscar, one of 10 nominations for -Alfonso Cuarón's black and white film about a domestic worker in Seventies Mexico City.

Its campaign is the most expensive of the Oscar season and dwarfs the budget of Roma itself, which cost a modest $15 million to make.

Academy voters have been showered with promotional material, including a 200-page coffee-table book and handmade chocolates. The company bought a $170,000 advertising spot druing CBS morning news, as well as print and digital ads.

Angelina Jolie hosted a "tastemakers" screening and cocktail party in Hollywood. She heaped praise on the cast and posed alongside Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, who went on to be nominated for leading actress and supporting actress respectively.

To an industry in which many view Netflix as an interloper, the backing of A-list names is important. Jolie is a supporter, having released her last documentary on the platform. Charlize Theron hosted a screening at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles.

Roma opened on only a handful of screens, and for a limited period, in order to qualify for the awards. Netflix has declined to release viewership figures.

While the critics swooned, it is difficult to gauge whether the film is a hit or a flop with audiences. The lack of feedback means voters are making their decisions in a vacuum - one which the company has been determined to fill.

The architect of the campaign is Lisa Taback, an awards strategist who was behind the Oscar success of Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech and two of the most recent winners, Spotlight (2016) and Moonlight (2017).

In July, Netflix bought Taback's company, installing her as "vice president, talent relations and awards".

She has said best-picture winners need a "rooting factor" and a strong narrative. Roma's marketing has pushed the autobiographical aspect - the film is a love letter to Cuarón's childhood nanny, Libo - and the personal story of its star performer, a newly qualified schoolteacher who had never acted before.