‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Win Publicity Campaign Awards

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Hollywood publicists have selected “Crazy Rich Asians” as the top movie publicity campaign for 2018 and “” as the best television campaign.

Warner Bros.’ “” topped the campaigns for Disney’s “Black Panther,” Fox’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Paramount’s “A Quiet Place,” Sony’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” and Universal’s “Halloween” for the Maxwell Weinberg award.

“Passion became our collateral,” said Warner publicist Adam Keen in his acceptance speech. “The film delivered on its promise.”

Ryan Aguirre won the award for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” topping “The Alienist” for Gabriela Zapata, “Mayans, M.C.” for Chris Kaspers, “Pose” for Yong Kim, and “Single Parents” for Shari Rosenblum.

The awards were presented at the 56th annual International Cinematographers Guild Awards on Friday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Dennis Dugan hosted.

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times won the press award and Jami Philbrick of Mtime took the international media award. Murray Close won the prize for excellence in unit still photography for movies and Macall Polay took the trophy for excellence in unit still photography.

Unit publicist Ernie Malik won the Les Mason Award, described as the top honor bestowed by publicists. Jamie Lee Curtis was honored with the lifetime achievement award and “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu with the motion picture showman of the year award. Greg Berlanti was given the television showman of the year award.

The ICG also unveiled the new Henri Bollinger Award, presented to Bollinger posthumously as the first recipient. His wife, Sandy, accepted on his behalf.

During her speech, Curtis lavished thanks on her longtime publicist Heidi Schaeffer, presenting her with a “Sound of Music” photo autographed by Christopher Plummer. She also blasted celebrities who are reluctant to do publicity.

“They don’t do press,” she said. “They don’t talk to the press. Until they have a movie coming out… they are fraudulent! They are fraudulent. The truth is this is the f******g game — this is how it’s played and I am proud to play it with you.”