Walt Disney is preparing a concerted marketing campaign for next year’s Oscars with the aim of winning a Best Picture award for Toy Story 3, which recently passed $1bn at the global box office to become the biggest-grossing animated film.
The company will soon begin running teaser ads in Hollywood trade papers aimed at the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The campaign will link Toy Story 3 characters such as Buzz Lightyear and Woody to characters from well-known Oscar-winning movies.
The push to secure the first ever Best Picture win for an animated film will intensify when ballots go out to Academy members at the end of December, a person familiar with the matter said. A typical Oscar campaign is not cheap with campaigns for films such as Gladiator and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button costing $10m-$20m, according to unofficial estimates.