Academy hands new Oscars rules to Leslie and everybody else
The Oscars don’t want some little, celeb-backed movie ruining the fair and earnest Oscar campaigns
As we all know, the small, character-actor-populated drama, To Leslie broke the Oscars last year. Reportedly costing less than $1 million to produce, the movie follows an alcoholic single mother who wins the lottery and blows it all before finding a second chance by running a motel. But the film’s content wasn’t the issue. A little character drama starring a respected actor like Andrea Riseborough won’t be the first to get some Oscar love. Unfortunately, her friends were the problem, raising the obvious question: If all your friends nominated To Leslie, would you nominate To Leslie, too? Campaigning on the film’s behalf, celebrities and Oscar winners Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet puffed up the film, hosting screenings and plugging it on the red carpet. It raised To Leslie’s profile enough to earn Riseborough a last-minute Best Actress nomination, causing everyone who spent millions on billboards, screeners, and all the other Oscar pollution that comes with awards season to lose their collective minds.
So the Oscars intervened. Earlier today, the Academy pulled a Bill Maher and released new rules for next year’s ceremonies to prevent another To Leslie from spoiling a slot meant for Mia Goth’s performance in Pearl. The main issues were social media and screenings. While the Academy reviewed To Leslie’s online campaign, they ultimately decided it was above board. Still, the Academy laid out more explicit rules about campaigning on behalf of films. Now, voters cannot “encourage” or “lobby” other members “outside of the scope of these promotion regulations to advance a motion picture, performance, or achievement,” putting even more weight on the words “for your consideration.”