The Weinsteins face last hurrah

Poised to leave the studio they founded, brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein bathed in the Oscar spotlight again last week as Miramax drew some of the year's most coveted Academy Award nominations.

Miramax received 20 nominations for films it distributed last year, including two for best picture: The Aviator, an account of the life of billionaire Howard Hughes, and Finding Neverland, about the creation of Peter Pan.

But these nominations could be the last hurrah for the Weinstein brothers at Miramax, the studio they named after their parents, which faces an uncertain future in the hands of its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co.

For more than a year, the Weinsteins have been entangled in contract renewal talks with Disney after sparring over the studio's profitability and the brothers' penchant for taking on high-budget, high-risk projects.

Miramax slashed more than a quarter of its staff in two rounds of layoffs in August and September, and many industry watchers believe that the brothers will leave the company once they have negotiated exit terms with Disney.

At least one source close to those talks has said the pair may depart soon, while others believe they may stay on until after the Oscars are presented on February 27.

"The best-picture nominations ... are a great honour that add even more value and prestige to the Disney-owned Miramax library," Bob and Harvey Weinstein said in a joint statement.

One of the past year's most highly charged films, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, was shut out of the Oscar competition, despite a gamble by Moore and the Weinsteins to position the documentary as a potential best-picture nominee.

The Weinsteins clashed with Disney over the controversial film, eventually bought rights to it and set up a separate company to distribute it.

Miramax has been an Oscar powerhouse since the mid-1990s, scoring best movie Oscar wins for The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love and, more recently, the 2002 musical Chicago, which became the studio's biggest box-office hit.

This year, Time Warner unit Warner Bros took more Oscar nominations than Miramax, including one for Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby.

That film is seen as a strong contender to win best picture after apparent front-runner The Aviator, which Miramax and Warner Bros jointly distributed.

The Aviator earned 11 nominations overall, more than any other film this year. Miramax's Finding Neverland was named in seven categories, as was Million Dollar Baby.

An Oscar can add tens of millions of dollars to a film's "library" value, which is measured by future home video, DVD, television and other revenues.

Million Dollar Baby, which has grossed just US$8.3 ($11.84) million to date in limited release, will be expanded to 2000 screens this Friday to cash in on its Oscar buzz, a move that was planned even before the nominations were announced, producer Tom Rosenberg said.

"The attention and publicity that these many Oscar nominations bring to a film is very valuable," he said.

- REUTERS