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harveyBorn March 19, 1952 in Flushing, Queens, New York, New York, Harvey Weinstein is the best known film producer of the modern era. He is especially skilled at getting his films and the a actors in his films nominated for Oscars, for which there have been numerous wins over the years. Usually billed as a filmโ€™s executive producer, he himself has only been nominated for Oscars twice as the filmโ€™s producer for 1998โ€™s Shakespeare in Love, which won and 2002โ€™s Gangs of New York which lost to Chicago, a film he was an executive producer of.

Harvey and his younger brother Bob got their start in the 1970s producing rock concerts which they later filmed and released as documentaries in the late 1970s. They named their film production company Miramax after their parents, Mariam and Max. Their first commercial success was 1982โ€™s The Policemanโ€™s Other Ball. In addition to the films produced by the Weinsteins, Miramax successfully branched out as the distribution company for such films as the 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line, Steven Soderberghโ€™s 1989 breakout hit sex, lies, and videotape and the 1990 art-house hits, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Lover and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. When Weinstein sued the Motion Picture Association of America over the latter two filmโ€™s X rating, the MPAA yielded to a new rating, NC-17 which effectively allowed the films to be released to theaters that wouldnโ€™t otherwise have allowed their showing.

After the success of 1992โ€™s Best Picture Oscar nominee The Crying Game, the Weinsteins sold Miramax to Disney for $80 million with the understanding that they would remain as heads of the production company. 1994โ€™s Pulp Fiction would be their first film to be nominated for Best Picture under their arrangement with Disney. 1996โ€™s The English Patient would be the first to win. It would also prove to be the first of Harveyโ€™s films to win an acting Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Juliette Binoche.

1997โ€™s Good Will Hunting would secure a Best Picture nomination and wins for Matt Damon and Ben Affleckโ€™s screenplay and Robin Williamsโ€™ supporting performance. 1998โ€™s Shakespeare in Love would be the first Best Picture winner in which Harvey was listed as the filmโ€™s producer, providing him with his first personal win. The film also won acting Oscars for Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench.

Harvey continued to have a stake in the Oscars with Best Picture nominations secured by Miramax for 1999โ€™s The Cider House Rules, 2000โ€™s Chocolat, 2002โ€™s trifecta of Chicago, The Hours and Gangs of New York for which Harvey was again named as one of the filmโ€™s producers and received his second and last to date Oscar nomination as a producer on the film.

He worked tirelessly on behalf of his actors in their quest for Oscar gold, most notably winners Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules, Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago, Jim Broadbent in Iris, Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Renรฉe Zellweger in Cold Mountain and Cate Blanchett in The Aviator between 1999 and 2004. In 2005 the Weinsteins split with Disney and formed a new production and distribution company which they named The Weinstein Company.

The new company got off to a fine start with an Oscar nomination for Judi Dench in 2005โ€™s Mrs. Henderson Presents. 2008โ€™s The Reader resulted in a Best Actress win for Kate Winslet while the same yearโ€™s Vicky Cristina Barcelona resulted in a Best Supporting Actress win for Penelope Cruz. 2009โ€™s Inglourious Basterds resulted in a Best Supporting Oscar for Christoph Waltz. 2010โ€™s The Kingโ€™s Speech and 2011โ€™s The Artist both earned Oscars for Best Picture, Direction and Best Actor (Colin Firth, Jean Dujardin). 2012โ€™s Django Unchained and Silver Linings Playbook were both nominated for Best Picture. Christoph Waltz won his second Best Supporting Oscar for the former while Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for the latter.

2013โ€™s August: Osage County provided a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Julia Roberts while Judi Dench earned her seventh Oscar nomination for Philomena, her sixth for a Weinstein film. This year all Harveyโ€™s bets are on The Imitation Game.

Harvey Weinstein remains an industry wizard at 62.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

PULP FICTION (1994), directed by Quentin Tarantino

A critical smash, a box-office phenomenon and Harveyโ€™s first Oscar nominee for Best Picture under his arrangement with Disney, the film earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Quentin Tarnantino and Roger Avery. Tarantino also earned a nomination for Best Director while John Travolta, Samuel Jackson and Uma Thurman were nominated or their performances. Sally Menke was nominated for Best Film Editing.

Lawrence Bender was the producer of record.

THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996), directed by Anthony Minghella

Cleverly marketed by Harvey as the film they said couldnโ€™t be made from an unwieldy novel, the film won the Best Picture Oscar in a close race with Fargo and Anthony Minghella won Best Director over Fargoโ€™s Joel Coen. The film won a total of ten Oscars out of twelve nominations. The most surprising win was Juliette Binocheโ€™s for Best Supporting Actress over expected winner Lauren Bacall in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas had been nominated in the lead categories.

Saul Zaentz was the producer of record.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998), directed by John Madden

Holding back the filmโ€™s release for a year so as not to have to complete with Harveyโ€™s 1997 Oscar hopeful, Good Will Hunting, the romantic comedy set in the latter part of the 16th Century was a surprise box-office hit and an even bigger surprise Oscar winner over expected winner Saving Private Ryan. The film won a total of ten Oscars out of thirteen nominations.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench won for their performances. For Dench, this was her second nomination out of seven to date. It was also her second out of six for a Harvey Weinstein distributed film. 2006โ€™s Notes on a Scandal was the only one of her Oscar nominated performances that was not released by either Miramax or The Weinstein Company in the U.S.

Harvey earned his only Oscar to date as producer of record.

GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002), directed by Martin Scorsese

Harvey had four major films in the 2002 Oscar race. Both Gangs of New York, which was nominated for ten Oscars and The Quiet American, which was nominated for one, were held back from release in 2001, the latter because of sensitivities related to the attacks of 9/11, the former because director Martin Scorsese needed more time to complete the film. Gangs was one of three Miramax films nominated for Best Picture that year. The others were The Hours, which was nominated for nine and Chicago, which was nominated for thirteen. When it was all over, Chicago had won six including Best Picture, while The Hours had won one. Neither Gangs of New York nor The Quiet American won any.

Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein were the producers of record of Gangs of New York. Scott Rudin and Robert Fox were the producors of record of The Hours. Martin Richards was the producer of record of Chicago.

DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012), directed by Quntin Tarantino

Weinsteinโ€™s most successful film to date, Tarantinoโ€™s antebellum southern slave drama beat the highly anticipated 12 Years a Slave into theatres a year ahead of the 2013 Oscar winner. Nominated for five Oscars, it won two, a second each for Tarantino for Best Original Screenplay and Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, his second for a Tarantino film. He had won his first for Tarantinoโ€™s Inglourious Basterds three years earlier.

Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone were the producers of record.

HARVEY WEINSTEIN AND OSCAR

  • Shakespeare in Love (1988) โ€“ Oscar – Best Picture
  • Gangs of New York (2002) โ€“ nominated – Best Picture

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