Joe Russo blames Harvey Weinstein for blockbuster movies not winning Oscars
Director Joe Russo has blamed Harvey Weinstein for the lack of award-season success granted to big blockbuster movies in the modern era.
Alongside his brother Anthony, the director has helmed many massive box-office hits like Captain America: Civil War and, most prominently, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The latter two films sit in the top ten list of the highest-grossing movies of all time, with Endgame holding the number one spot for two years.
Despite their enormous popularity with the public, the movies only earned nominations for ‘Best Visual Effects’ at the Oscars, failing to gain recognition in major categories like ‘Best Picture’.
However, Russo believes that Weinstein’s domination of the industry in the 1990s – a time that allowed independent filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino to thrive – affected the ability for blockbusters to champion at awards ceremonies.
Talking to The Sunday Times, the director said, “He vilified mainstream movies to champion the art films he pushed for Oscar campaigns. Popular films were winning Oscars before the mid ’90s, then Weinstein started mudslinging campaigns.”
He continued, “It affected how audiences view the Oscars, because they’ve not seen most of the movies. We’re in a complicated place. Things we should all be enjoying collectively we instead punch each other in the face over.”
Russo went on to defend the demonisation of Marvel, a trend that has become increasingly more widespread over recent years as filmmakers like Martin Scorsese have criticised the franchise. “Like this argument that Marvel movies were killing cinema. Well, Marvel movies seemed to be keeping cinemas open for quite a long time,” he said.
The Russo brothers have recently released their latest film, Electric State, starring Millie Bobby Brown, which is one of the most expensive movies in history.
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