Paramount Would Like You To Consider TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION For The Best Picture Oscar

I am reasonably sure that studio execs know that not every film they make is not Academy Awards Best Picture material. Sure, there may be some rather talented work going on in service of a stinker – See the Best Makeup Oscar nomination for Eddie Murphy’s otherwise terrible Norbit (2007) – but they have to be aware that a majority of their releases are not serious contenders for the Academy’s top prize.

That doesn’t seem to stop them from trying though. Case in point, this “For Your Consideration” ad I stumbled across while perusing Paramount’s Academy Award campaign site.

That’s right, Paramount Pictures wants you, if you happen to be an Academy voter, to think about nominating and voting for Transformers: Age Of Extinction for Best Picture this year. And while you’re at it, maybe think about Michael Bay for Best Director and Ehren Kruger for Best Adapted Screenplay. Just, never mind the fact that the film has an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Does Bay actually still have this much juice that he can pressure the studio into this campaign? Sure the movie grossed upwards of a $1 billion at the box office world wide, but surely he can’t be so blinded by his own ego that he can’t realize how ridiculous this all looks? Sure, I can see them touting the film for some technical awards, and we know that it is on the Academy’s shortlist of ten films eligible to be nominated in the Best Visual Effects category. But this just makes Bay and the studio look absolutely foolish.

Just so you know, the nomination process opens on Monday, December 29, 2014 at 8 a.m. PT and closes on Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 5 p.m. PT, with the nominations being announced Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015.