On the Awards Trail, ‘F1’ Producer Jerry Bruckheimer Felt Like the Underdog

On the awards campaign trail with the racing drama “F1,” Jerry Bruckheimer felt a little bit like the underdog. That was partly because of his history with the Oscars: Considering his long and storied career, which includes everything from producing Michael Mann’s debut feature “Thief” to overseeing global franchises such as “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” it seems like a miscalculation that Bruckheimer didn’t get his first Best Picture nomination until 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.”

But beyond that, the veteran producer noticed something when he asked audiences at each screening how many in the theater were seeing “F1” for the first time. “Eighty-five percent of the people hadn’t seen the movie,” Bruckheimer said. He was amazed. This was in October, November and December. The movie, which opened last summer, had a long theatrical window, followed by digital and physical home media releases and, finally, a spot on Apple TV.

“People hadn’t seen the movie,” he repeated. “It’s unbelievable. Every screening we did, it was the same thing. People hadn’t seen the movie because they put it in the category, oh, it’s a racing movie. But when they see it, it’s romantic, it’s dramatic, it’s got great characters. They didn’t realize that until they saw it. When they see it, they love it.”

Academy voters did, and they showed their love by giving Bruckheimer his second Best Picture nomination in four years, after a career spanning more than 40 years without any noms. It still doesn’t totally add up, but at least the math is getting better.

“I was thrilled. It was amazing,” Bruckheimer said from Orlando the morning of the nominations, when “F1” also earned nods for Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. “It’s really nice when your peers nominate you for awards — people that know the business and understand how hard it is to get these movies made and to make them successful, and I’m glad they all recognize it.”

To get the Best Picture nomination, a mild surprise on a morning without many shocks, Apple waged a smart awards campaign. The movie had made $631 million since Warner Bros. released it theatrically, but it was still considered a long shot for consideration. A handsomely made sports picture starring Brad Pitt, directed by “Maverick’s” Joseph Kosinski and produced by Bruckheimer? For the Oscars?

It turns out Bruckheimer was just as taken aback. “I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously, I never expected anything,” he said. “It’s a miracle that we got the movie made and it became a hit, and then to get nominated… It’s the cherry on the top.”

The producer was particularly thrilled by the nominations because they highlighted the entire team that made “F1” a reality. “The amount of work and effort they put into it is just phenomenal,” he said. “Just the editing — Stephen Mirrione had 5,000 hours of film he had to go through, and then he had all the film from the races. We had special cameras that Apple made from their iPhone that we put on two cars at every race. We had to go through all that, and then you have to craft the story and make the racing work, and all the different races from around the world, and you have to create drama and make every race different. The amount of work that he put in with Joe was just endless.”

As for the visual effects, Kosinski, Bruckheimer and the crew followed the framework they used for “Top Gun: Maverick.” In that film, they placed actors into fighter jets believably. In “F1,” it was about inserting Pitt and others into actual Formula One races. “We had our car at a lot of the various racetracks but we couldn’t have our car in an actual race,” Bruckheimer said. “We shot the racing footage and then would (digitally) remove a car and put our car in there. And it’s seamless.”

But they also had to tinker with the movie cars: The actors were driving F1 cars with smaller F2 engines, so the tires were narrower and had to be beefed up digitally. “You can’t tell,” said Bruckheimer proudly.

This story first ran in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

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