Oscars 2023: how Andrea Riseborough slipped into the nominations without being in the pools

On Tuesday, January 24, Riz Ahmed and Jessica Williams read the list of nominees for the 95 Oscars. “All at once everywhere” became the film with the most nominations. Not a single female director was mentioned. And the terror took a good scare again. There was also room for pleasant surprises, such as those of Paul Mescal, Stephanie Hsu or Brian Tyree Henry. But without a doubt, the one that hallucinated ‘Film Twitter’ the most was Andrea Riseborough’s appearance in the Best Actress category..

The ‘To Leslie’ star’s possible nomination had been the subject of memes on Twitter for a few weeks due to her unexpected campaign in the final stretch of voting for the Academy Awards in Hollywood. But let’s get into the situation first. The Brit has forged her career with more or less luck since the 2000s. Her filmography ranges from acclaimed titles such as “Birdman or (the unexpected virtue of ignorance)” or “Nocturnal Animals”, to flops such as “Wallis and Eduardo : The Romance of the Century” by Madonna. Recently we could see her in “Amsterdam” and in “Matilda, from Roald Dahl: The Musical”, in which she plays Matilda’s mother. ‘To Leslie’ is a very small production house film distributed in the United States by Momentum Pictures, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. Directed by Michael Morris (‘Better Call Saul’), is a story based on true events centered around a single mother from Texas trying to rebuild her life after winning the lottery and squandering the prize..

The film garnered positive reviews at the time (it averages a 7.7 in reviews on Rotten Tomatoes), but only raised a little over $27,000 in the few countries it was released in (Spanish theaters coming from Sherlock Films ). Until now Riseborough hasn’t appeared in major Oscar pools because He wasn’t even having a flashy prize run.. He had only slipped into nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, ignored in major “preludes to the Oscars” like the Golden Globes or Screen Actors Guild nominations.

Nothing seemed to go in favor of his candidacy. But everything started to change when, suddenly, half of Hollywood began to speak well of his performance. And we’re not talking about trivial names: Jane Fonda, Laura Dern, Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Susan Sarandon, Courteney Cox, Jamie Lee Curtis and a long etcetera posted on social media or publicly commented how much they liked the role of Andrea Riseborough . Some of the tweets were so similar that phrases like “a little movie with a big heart” ended up becoming a running joke, as well as sending out the stink of a marketing campaign. Praise followed: Charlize Theron and Amy Adams hosted screenings of the film and performances with her. Kate Winslet took advantage of what she arranged to say that “It was one of the best female performances I’ve ever seen.”. Cate Blanchett even mentioned her in her acceptance speech when she won the Critics Choice Award for “Tár.” All this on days when Academy members had to cast their votes. This “harass and tear down” campaign worked. The “Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough” was already a reality.

Conspiracies and controversies

With his appointment came conspiracy theories and controversies. There were those who suggested that it all looked like a campaign orchestrated by the CAA, its representative agency (and that of many of those who have shown their support). However, as Vulture indicates, CAA also has Viola Davis in its client pool, who is much more favored for nominations than Riseborough and who was excluded. Davis is the main one mentioned together with Danielle Deadwyler, actress of ‘Till – The crime that changed everything’, for which it is noted the lack of black actresses in the nominations. Although the complaint is general, many focus their hatred on Riseborough, criticizing the fact that she is a white actress promoted by her white friends of hers. However, as it is also indicated, ‘To Leslie’ comes from a terribly small distributor who has no money for the campaign and has had to contend with titans such as Focus Features, producer of ‘Tár’, or A24, studio of ‘All at Once Everywhere’. Most likely, it was Andrea Riseborough herself and producer Jason Weinberg who withdrew the agenda and asked their friends and colleagues to lend a hand by promoting the candidacy on key voting days.

Here’s how the actress reacted to such support from Hollywood: “The list (of names) is endless, it’s almost embarrassing to talk about. I’m still in a bit of a state of dissociation from it all, to be honest. I know it happened but… the support has been amazing and baffling . Maybe not everyone feels motivated, but for me it was very important. Being accepted by a community as an equal, doing things and having them seen and appreciated. It’s important that we celebrate each other’s work, very, very important. It took me by surprise” he commented to THR.

Riseborough has thus become a David among Goliaths, competing for the statuette against Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh, who have much stronger award-winning careers than her, Ana de Armas, who was saved from the burning of a critically reviled film, and from Michelle Williams, who has a much stronger resume behind her and comes hand in hand with Steven Spielberg’s latest film and a major distributor like Universal Pictures. He has tremendous difficulty getting on stage at the Dolby Theater on the night of March 12-13. But if he has managed to get here, challenging pools and experts, who knows what he will be able to achieve in the next month and a half.