The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 95th Academy Awards ceremony recently. At the ceremony, a name surprised most of the audience in the Best Actress award: Andrea Riseborough.
protagonist of to Leslie, the artist did not appear on most of the lists of possible nominees, which consider all Oscar-eligible thermometers, not even in the biggest campaigns of the season. In this way, her nomination would have happened spontaneously, with some of the voters having publicly manifested themselves in favor of the nomination.
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Despite the fact that, on social media, much criticism arose after Riseborough’s name appeared on the list, instead of Viola Davis, for The Woman Kingor Danielle Deadwyler, for Tillsome critics celebrated the recognition of the actress, especially for being part of a film that would not be able to deal with the campaign of market giants.
(Momentum Pictures/Playback)Source: Momentum Pictures
It turns out that, in recent days, according to what Variety and other foreign portals have learned, the Academy seems to have been bothered by the possible lack of campaign for the film in question and would be internally investigating all the details of that nomination. So, did Andrea Riseborough break any of the rules to get this nomination?
Oscars: How does the campaign for eligible films usually go?
Generally speaking, since the month of August, the main distributors have begun to prepare for the awards at the beginning of next year. As the Oscar is the main one, it is necessary to be careful in what the bets of the season will be.
It is also worth noting that, to be eligible for an Oscar, the film also needs to be shown on specific dates for at least one week in the city of Los Angeles. Distributors also enroll their projects at the Academy, placing competitors who wish to be nominated in each category.
During the first days of the year, special sessions are held with team members, especially the cast and those that the distributor wants recognition by the academy. Other events are also foreseen, as well as interviews, meetings and making the film available so that voters have the opportunity to watch it.
to Leslie: how did the film campaign happen?
As described earlier, there is a lot of money and marketing involved in an Oscar campaign. Many may not know, but most of the productions that won the award were those that had the highest investment and managed to attract the attention of voters with a solid argument.
In case of to Leslie, its distributor is very small and would not be able to afford a “traditional campaign”. In that sense, the film benefited from celebrity voters such as Kate Winslet, who publicly called Andrea Riseborough’s performance in this film one of her all-time greats.
This fact caught the attention of the media, which soon sought more information about this virtually unknown independent drama. And the campaign’s controversy may have arisen precisely because of this issue: according to the academy’s rules, spontaneous comments from voting members are allowed, as long as they are not used by the distributor to favor its candidates.
After all, Andrea Riseborough will be disqualified from the awards?
According to the findings of the Variety, among other issues, the Academy has been more intensely investigating two possible violations surrounding the Riseborough nomination. The first of them refers to the alleged request that the actress Mary McCormack, married to Michael Morris, director of to Lesliemade several stars.
McCormack reportedly sent an email to numerous actors and actresses asking them to campaign for the film on social media. Under the rules, making appeals by name to voters is expressly prohibited.
The second would be linked to an official publication by the producers, in which they shared excerpts from a review in which the film received several accolades, but made comparisons to competitors, which is also forbidden.
(IMDb/Playback)Source: IMDb
The expectation is that this Tuesday (31) there will be a verdict. Academy governance members will formally meet to make a decision. If the actress is removed from the Oscar, during its 95th edition, only four competitors will be able to receive the award.
