If you have ever wondered how some movies end up getting Oscars and others don't, the answer just may be public relations. There are people devoted to publicizing movies to Oscar voters. This pretty much guarantees that smaller budgets will not likely get Oscars unless they are "sleeper" hits that everyone watches and loves. It takes money to make sure every Motion Picture Academy voter sees your movie, or at least hears good buzz.  The Washington Post had an excellent article on this topic, called: <a class="wp-caption" title="Oscar Publicists" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/19/AR2008121900747.html" target="_blank">For your Consideration: The Oscar Publicists.</a>

When a client asks you if public relations has any value just point them to the Oscar movie you love to hate (in my case, it is Brokeback Mountain, which I thought was terribly made).  There is a good chance the reason it won is because it had the best PR/publicity campaign.