Without a u.s. release or a Golden Globe nod, Maelstrom’s marketing agents are climbing an uphill battle to get members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to stand up and take notice of the Canadian selection for the 2000 Academy Awards’ best foreign-language film category.

‘Our biggest struggle is the film hasn’t been released in the u.s. We don’t have a u.s. distributor. We’re not on the radar,’ says Jill Lieberman, senior vp of marketing and communications at Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution, the film’s Canadian distributor.

One of the biggest challenges to receiving an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film is ensuring the committee that makes the selections for that category actually sees the film. But because the members who make up the foreign-language committee are unidentified, it becomes near impossible to target many marketing efforts, especially since the Academy is made up of more than 6,000 members in l.a. alone.

And so the initial strategy for Lieberman and her team was to focus on winning a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign film, a much more realistic task seeing as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the group that selects the Golden Globe nominees – is made up of roughly 80 identified members.

‘It’s a smaller group and we know who they are. Focusing on the Academy would be an expensive way to reach a few people,’ says Lieberman.

It is also common belief that the result of the Golden Globe Awards, which this year took place on Jan. 21, often foreshadows the outcome of the Oscars.

However, in spite of aggressive efforts by aac’s distribution arm and writer/director Denis Villeneuve, Maelstrom did not receive the Golden Globe nomination it wanted.

‘It was a major setback for us,’ says Lieberman.

With a modest p&a budget established specifically for the Academy push, Lieberman helmed an extensive mail-out campaign in which videocassettes and press material were sent to the hfpa and two consecutive screenings of Maelstrom were set up, with appearances by Villeneuve and film star Marie-Josee Croze.

The first screening was on Nov. 26, held in conjunction with the Canadian consulate general in l.a. The event turned out roughly 25 people, including the president of the hfpa. Villeneuve introduced the film, which was followed by a swank reception at l.a.’s Kate Mantilini restaurant.

The next evening the film was screened at ucla for students and press who may have missed the first night. Villeneuve again introduced the film and spoke about it one-on-one after the screening.

‘We want to reach out on a personal level because Denis is so passionate and personable,’ says Lieberman. Villeneuve also has a small following of American press who remember him from his first feature, Un 32 aout sur terre (August 32nd on Earth), the Canadian foreign-language selection for the 1998 Academy Awards.

Roger Frappier (Jesus of Montreal) Maelstom’s producer and a member of the ampas, is also a strong draw for the film’s publicity push. ‘With him, we’re setting up features and interviews in the trades, like the Hollywood Reporter and Variety International, and when the film [was] presented at Sundance it [was] presented by Roger and Denis,’ says Alison Dewar, director of publicity, Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution.

Sundance provides a timely opportunity to increase the film’s profile and drive its publicity engine through its high-end exposure and word-of-mouth marketing. Competing in the World Cinema category, as the only Canadian entry, the film’s festival premiere took place on the evening of Jan. 19, followed by an exclusive dinner with journalists and international buyers.

‘It’s all about developing relationships,’ says Dewar.

What’s unusual about the Academy’s foreign-language category is those selected by their respective countries are not allowed to send cassettes to members. The unidentified committee is obligated to see the films on screens.

And even though no one (allegedly) knows who makes up the committee, it is still imperative that as many members of the Academy as possible see the film because once/if the film is nominated all members vote on it.

The p&a budget, which came in hundreds of thousands of dollars less than those from the Hollywood studios, is also quite a bit lower than some of Maelstrom’s direct competition, mainly because it had to reflect the film’s budget ($3.4 million), says Lieberman.

While marketing efforts are vital to the success and ultimate recognition of a film, the quality of the film itself lends a great deal to its acclaim.

A third of the p&a budget has been devoted to placing ads in the trades, which have also increased the profile and exposure of the film from the editorial side.

The Hollywood Reporter gave Maelstrom a huge boost in its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar Watch report (in its Jan. 9-15 issue), which spotlighted the Canadian selection as a contender among the 45 competitors vying for the five nominee spots.

In addition to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan), which is understood to be a shoe-in for a nomination, some of Maelstrom’s heaviest competition includes Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Hundred Steps (Italy), Patrice Leconte’s The Widow of St. Pierre (France), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Amores Perros (Mexico), Bahman Ghobadi’s A Time for Drunken Horses (Iran) and Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang (Korea).

Maelstrom, voted best Canadian film at last year’s Montreal World Film Festival and Vancouver International Film Festival, is about a young woman who experiences a delayed sense of guilt after running over a pedestrian and fleeing from the scene of the accident.

Frappier and Luc Vandal of Montreal’s Max Films produced the film.

Nominations for best foreign-language film will be announced Feb. 13 and the winner will be announced at the Academy Awards ceremony in l.a., March 25.

-www.allianceatlantis.com