Searchlight Pictures Marketing EVP Michelle Hooper Leaving Studio
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
