Fresh off its Emmy nomination sweep, Netflix may be preparing for a serious Oscars push.
The streaming-video giant just hired Hollywood’s top awards strategist, Lisa Taback, who earned her stripes working with famed awards-season hustlers, producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein.
Netflix poached Taback and colleagues from her consulting firm, LT-LA, the Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday (July 18). Taback has helped deliver seven Best Picture awards at the Oscars—Hollywood’s top honor—and many other accolades in her career. In her new post at Netflix, she’ll head up talent relations and report directly to chief content officer Ted Sarandos.
The hires come ahead of Oscars season in the US, when studios release the films they deem most worthy of critical acclaim, in the hopes of earning recognition from the illustrious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which runs the awards ceremony.
Taback worked in the publicity department at the Weinstein-run Miramax in the 1990s, where she was reportedly tasked with delivering Oscar nominations and wins at any cost. Harvey Weinstein was known for doing anything in his power, shy of breaking the rules, to win awards. She started her own consultancy in 1994, but continued to work with the Weinsteins and was a strategist for The Weinstein Company as well.
She cut ties with The Weinstein Comany a few years before Harvey fell from power and the company went bankrupt. She remained one of the leading awards-season strategists in the business. Taback reportedly campaigned for Lionsgate’s La La Land and A24’s Moonlight, both of which dominated the 2017 Oscars.
With Taback in its corner, Netflix could become a new awards-season powerhouse. It won its first feature-film Oscar for the documentary Icarus last year, and it proudly displays its Oscars, Emmys, and other accolades in the entryway of its West Hollywood offices. It opened offices in Los Angeles in 2017, and is eager for more recognition to attract top-tier talent. Netflix wants to cement itself as not only a place for zeitgeist-hitting TV, but top-quality movies and series that could go up against any Hollywood studio.