EXCLUSIVE: We hear that Searchlight Pictures‘ EVP of Marketing Michelle Hooper, who delivered the specialty label numerous Oscar nominations and wins during her two-decade tenure, is exiting.
Hooper led publicity, awards and creative marketing operations, earning the studio 21 Best Picture Oscar nominations — including Best Picture winners Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, The Shape of Water and Nomadland; a total of 183 Oscar nominations; and 49 wins.
As far as Golden Globes go, her work delivered 32 awards from 133 nominations, including 20 Best Picture noms and eight wins.
Hooper, who joined Searchlight in 2006, is respected by her peers for her taste, whip-smart instincts, creativity and ingenuity in marketing, and was internally known as “the closer,” bringing a film’s campaign home in its final stretch. Her campaigns for various Oscar winners often dialed into the cultural zeitgeist, from understanding how Nomadland would resonate in the context of the pandemic, to spotting the cultural relevance of Slumdog Millionaire in the Obama era, and appreciating the historical significance of 12 Years a Slave, which was closely followed by Birdman.
This season, Hooper’s awards campaigns include for Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine (93% certified fresh) and Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! (87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes).
Prior to joining Searchlight, Hooper spent four years at Fox Broadcasting where she was VP of Entertainment Publicity. While at Fox, Hooper spearheaded the implementation of national publicity campaigns for multiple series such as launching American Idol, 24, Arrested Development, Family Guy and The Simpsons. Prior to joining Fox, Hooper was the Director of Entertainment Communications at CBS Entertainment in New York, where she was part of the team that launched and created the publicity campaign for Survivor.
After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in March 2019, Hooper made the jump. I understand that Hooper’s departure is part of the cuts that occurred at the Disney studio earlier this month.
Other notable releases during Hooper’s Searchlight administration include James Mangold’s eight-time Oscar-nominated A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan; Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, which won an Oscar for Kieran Culkin; Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch starring Amy Adams; Yorgos Lanthimos’ four-time Academy Award winner Poor Things, starring and produced by Emma Stone; Lanthimos’ follow-up Kinds of Kindness, also starring Stone with Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau and Margaret Qualley; and Andrew Haigh’s romantic drama All of Us Strangers starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy.
She also oversaw the marketing on streaming originals such as Tina Mabry’s The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat starring Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Sanaa Lathan; Karrie Crouse and Will Joines’ Hold Your Breath starring Sarah Paulson; and Eva Longoria’s Oscar-nominated Flamin’ Hot, which became the first original film to debut simultaneously on both Hulu and Disney+ and is Searchlight’s most-watched streaming motion picture of all time.
Other past successful films during Hooper’s reign include The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Isle of Dogs, Super Troopers 2, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Gifted, Jackie, Brooklyn, Wild, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Descendants, The Tree of Life, Black Swan, 127 Hours, Crazy Heart, 500 Days of Summer, The Wrestler, Juno, Once, Little Miss Sunshine and The Last King of Scotland.
Hooper shared the Publicist Guild of America’s Maxwell Weinberg Showmanship Award for her work on Survivor. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and BAFTA.
