A GUIDE TO HOLLYWOOD’S BIGGEST RACES
OCTOBER 01, 2021
Oscar Campaigning Is Back. Get Ready.
Last weekend was a busy one on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California. Morning, noon, and night on both Saturday and Sunday, the studio welcomed in Academy voters and guild members from across the industry, giving them a targeted sneak peek at Dune in the latest step of its months-long Oscar campaign. Director Denis Villeneuve was in town for aftershow Q&As with various craftspeople on the film—disclosure, I moderated one such discussion, focused on the film’s picture- and sound-editing—and while the film’s release remains simultaneously set for streaming on HBO Max, the big-screen experience was proudly on display and in full effect.
I’m David Canfield, and like many of my colleagues, I’m trying to keep up with a sudden return to the awards-season normal, after last cycle’s COVID-induced interruption: racing to screenings and events around Los Angeles, tracking the contenders already hitting the circuit hard, stopping by parties that offer the chance for both glad-handing and whispering about which movies are truly resonating. On Wednesday, Kristen Stewart was fêted at a screening and reception for Spencer, the Princess Diana biopic primed to deliver her first Oscar nomination, while over at the finally completed Academy Museum, the opening-night party found newly minted Emmy and Oscar winners mingling among the starry crowd. My colleague Rebecca Ford has a full rundown of the night’s festivities and attendees.
And this is just on the West Coast. Look toward the Atlantic, and the New York Film Festival has built on the promise of Cannes, Venice, and Telluride with a glorious return to in-person moviegoing. Some of the hottest early-September premieres are making their Lincoln Center splashes with flair: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, critically acclaimed out of Venice, screened to more effusive reactions, this time with Gyllenhaal and her entire main cast (including lead-actress winner Olivia Colman) present for interviews and a party. As anyone in Telluride can tell you, nobody throws a party like this crew; as Jordan Hoffman, reporting for Vanity Fair, learned upon attending the New York celebration, this remains very true.
This is just the beginning. You feel Hollywood once again ready, albeit with some new testing and safety precautions, to embrace the face-to-face nature of campaigning—not just as a means to a hopefully golden end, but as a reminder of the feeling of coming together in celebration of movies. Major titles like Dune and Lost Daughter are steadily making their way, while others still yet to be unveiled—Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley—begin to build buzz with gorgeous trailers. While I can’t yet divulge everything I’ve seen or heard, safe to say there are many big players still on the horizon.
So welcome back to the campaign trail, Hollywood. It feels good to be back—masked-up and all.
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