Following Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, award experts are still picking their jaws up off the floor.
Despite a flurry of late celebrity support, many Oscar-watchers believed British actress Andrea Riseborough faced an insurmountable obstacle in the fiercely competitive category for best actress.
On Tuesday, though, she was nominated for her work into Leslie, in which she portrays a Texas mother who struggles to make ends meet after spending her lottery winnings on alcohol.
Riseborough is without a doubt impressive in the low-budget film, but the nomination even surprised her. After the nominees were announced, she told Deadline, “I am stunned.” “It’s such an unanticipated ray of sunshine… I am not completely certain how this occurred.”
Hollywood A-listers
We have an inkling, and it involves Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, Courteney Cox, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Sarah Paulson, and Amy Adams.
They are just a few of the Hollywood A-listers who supported To Leslie, showing their support on social media during the last days of voting and, in some cases, even arranging their screenings.
In recent days, it had become a running joke that numerous posts praising the film used the same phrase, describing it as a “little film with a great heart.” However, the copied tweets and Instagram postings were motivated by genuine affection.
Ultimately, Riseborough’s attempts to get the film on the Academy’s radar were successful, although it is difficult to stress how unconventional her campaign has been.
When it first opened, To Leslie barely earned $27,000 (£21,800) at the box office. (However, it did earn at least an additional £4.49 last week when this reporter rented it from a popular streaming service.)
The premiere of the film occurred during South by Southwest in March. SXSW, unlike Toronto, Venice, or Cannes, is not one of the film festivals regarded as crucial to the awards race, and the film received little attention.
“After SXSW there was a calm lull,” Riseborough recalled. “Then gradually, as the picture got a few showing overseas. Including at Raindance, which was a major event because we hadn’t had a UK release. We noticed that people began to discuss it.
Andrea Riseborough shock and other topics
People asked us, ‘Why can’t I go see it? Where is it located?’ We were eventually able to direct them to iTunes and Amazon, although it took some time.”
Nevertheless, a nomination appeared unlikely. Riseborough remarked, “It was so difficult to imagine it could ever occur. Because we had not been in the running for anything else.”
Importantly, the people behind the film posted it to the Academy’s viewing platform, making it more accessible to voters. In the meanwhile, Riseborough’s nomination for the Independent Spirit Awards, which honor independent films, definitely didn’t hurt.
However, several expressed skepticism that the effort was anything other than staged.
Rebecca Ford of Vanity Fair stated, “There are individuals who think this is such a beautiful, organic movement. But I have to tell you that it is not organic.” “She [Riseborough] has a well-connected manager and is well-respected by actors. And they just used this opportunity to launch this campaign, and it is a campaign.”
She has also acted in the films Birdman and Shadow Dancer, as well as television programs such as ZeroZeroZero and National Treasure.
Her first nomination for an Oscar is rather humiliating for the many awards watchers who typically take pride in predicting the outcome based on the innumerable films they’ve seen and their feeling of momentum at industry meetings.
Erik Anderson of Awards Watch tweeted, only half-jokingly, “The Andrea Riseborough campaign will be discussed for DECADES.”
We will undoubtedly continue to discuss it till the Oscars ceremony on March 12th.
Here are four other topics of conversation from this year’s nominations:
A weaker year for streaming
Streaming services have not had a particularly successful year at the Academy Awards since 2022. When Apple’s Coda became the first film from a streaming service to win best picture.
All Quiet On The Western Front on Netflix is the sole candidate from a streaming service in the top category this year.
Despite Netflix’s extensive marketing efforts for Glass Onion and Pinocchio, neither film received more than one nomination.
All Quiet, on the other hand, did not initially appear to be a viable candidate until it began to appear prominently at precursor ceremonies, at which point marketing and campaigning were ramped up a notch. It has now received nine Oscar nominations.
All of the other nominees for best picture were released in theatres, while several are now available for streaming. The Banshees of Inisherin, for instance, is available on Disney+ in the United Kingdom just three months after its theatrical debut.
Streaming services received around half as many nominations as they did a year ago. Netflix, Apple, and Amazon were nominated for a total of 19 awards, down from 37 the previous year.
Despite the likelihood that Netflix’s All Quiet will win best picture, the poorer year for streaming may be somewhat attributable to the comeback of theatrical productions following the pandemic.
Paul Mescal among Irish nominees
Bill Nighy, Colin Farrell, Austin Butler, and Brendan Fraser were all nominated for best actor on Tuesday, as expected. But there was significant disagreement over who would receive the fifth nomination.
Unexpectedly, it was the Irish actor Paul Mescal for his portrayal in the outstanding film Aftersun. The film sees him play a young Scottish father battling with how to nurture his kid.
“This is bananas!” Mescal stated of his nomination. “Being recognised by the Academy is such an incredible honour, and I am so incredibly grateful.”
He participated in a very impressive display of Irish performers and ability. The Banshees of Inisherin alone received nominations for four acting roles (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon), as well as for best picture and best director for Martin McDonagh.
The Quiet Girl/An Cailn Ciin became the first Irish-language film to ever be nominated for best foreign feature. The entertaining and modest picture depicts the story of a bashful young girl who spends the summer with distant relatives.
Colm Bairéad, writer and director of the film, stated that the cast and crew were “honoured beyond words” to be recognised.
Marvel and sequels break records
Angela Bassett was the first actor nominated for a performance in a Marvel film.
Bassett reprises her role as Queen Ramonda, the mother of the late Chadwick Boseman’s character T’Challa, in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Wakanda Forever was not nominated for best picture, but the nominations for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar. The Way of Water meant that a record number of sequels made the shortlist in a single year.
Brian Tyree Henry and other surprises
Brian Tyree Henry, who co-stars with Jennifer Lawrence in Apple’s great film Causeway as a supporting actor, received an unexpected nod.
This was a massive, but nice, surprise. As Lawrence’s character begins to recuperate from a serious brain injury, Henry portrays a mechanic who befriends her.
Other surprises included Hong Chau’s inclusion on the shortlist for best supporting actress for The Whale and Ana de Armas’ nomination for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the contentious Blonde, barely one day after the film was nominated for multiple Razzies.
Unfortunately, there were as many snubs as there were shocks, probably most notably Danielle Deadwyler. Who was widely anticipated to receive an award for her amazing performance in Till. Olivia Colman and Eddie Redmayne were two other notable absentees.
