Quentin Tarantino’s been snubbed by the Academy by not being nominated for his work as director of “Djano Unchained,” especially if you compare the spotlight films like Argo and Lincoln received.
And the person taking full responsibility for that is none other than Django’s producer, Jewish filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, who told Deadline it was his move to hold the film back for as long as he did.
“Here’s what I think happened on Django. We finished the movie December 1. We didn’t show it until a few days later. The race was early this year: the voting cutoff was January 3. We tried to show it to people in theaters, not on DVD,” he said. “It’s an epic movie and that man put his whole life and heart into this. It’s his most important movie, his most important subject matter, and the idea of DVDs stopped me cold. And I stopped them. I wouldn’t do it.”
“I delayed them. I wanted people to see it on the big screen,” he added. “I told Quentin we’d probably pay the price at the Oscars, but it was the right way to see an epic period movie about a man who does not give up. Eventually, we gave out the DVDs but we paid the price for being late.”
Still, even with Weinstein’s poor decision on the film’s timing, its still doing well in terms of Academy nominations: its up for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz).
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