Disney Publicist Marshall Weinbaum Departs for Netflix’s Awards Team (Exclusive)

Marshall Weinbaum, an admired publicist who has been a principal intermediary between The Walt Disney Studios and the press for the past 17 years, including on virtually every Disney Animation and Pixar project, is leaving the Mouse House to join Netflix’s awards team, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

He will be a manager of awards (animation), working under veteran Julie Tustin on awards campaigns for the streamer’s animated films, which have increasingly factored into the Oscar race. Indeed, over the past five years, Netflix has landed seven best animated feature Oscar nominations (at least one every year), winning for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio in 2022, and two best animated short Oscar nominations, winning for If Anything Happens I Love You in 2021.

Weinbaum came to Disney almost directly after graduating from Michigan State University. As a senior publicist, he became a fixture at the company’s large-scale premieres, screenings and junkets, as well as other industry events, conventions and award shows, and also oversaw interactions with most leading industry publications. He worked on more than 25 films that grossed over $1 billion worldwide, and 13 of the 15 films with the highest-grossing opening weekends at the domestic box office.

Widely admired by his peers, he was voted publicist of the year in 2022 by the ICG Publicists Guild, and was also part of the teams behind a handful of campaigns that were recognized by the guild as the best of their respective years: the films The Help and Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the TV series The Mandalorian and, earlier this year, Ahsoka.

“I’ve loved my time at Disney over the past 17 years,” Weinbaum tells THR, “and I’m really excited about this new opportunity at Netflix. I’ve always loved animation and awards, so this is a dream come true.”