Focus is giving Obsession a heavy awards push overall, with plans to campaign its young director “as a rare triple threat in best director, original screenplay and film editing,” a specific set of awards most recently swept by Sean Baker for Anora. However, given the Oscars’ general ambivalence toward horror movies, it remains to be seen whether the Academy will share Focus’s or moviegoers’ enthusiasm for the hit film.
Among the other categories Focus plans to campaign for include a Best Actor nomination for co-lead Michael Johnston and Best Supporting nominations for Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, and *rubs eyes, blinks* Andy Richter; nominations for Cinematography (Taylor Clemons), Original Score (Rock Burwell), Casting (Skyler Zurn), Costume Design (Blair James), Sound (YJ Gold with Ben Zarai), Makeup and Hairstyling (Allie Shehorn), and Production Design (Vivian Gray)—culminating in the nomination for which Focus is no doubt willing to bet its last One Wish Willow, Best Picture.
The only thing that remains, according to Variety, is which category Focus will pursue for the film at the Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Drama or Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. This is a similar conundrum to the one Zach Cregger’s Weapons and Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out faced, with the latter landing in the Musical or Comedy category.
This enthusiastic campaign follows Obsession‘s blockbuster performance, with the film’s $500 million-plus worldwide haul becoming the highest-grossing film ever made with a budget under $1 million. (The film was produced for an estimated $750,000.) Those grosses have recently come under scrutiny, with executive producer Leonora Ann Darby alleging in a suit filed in August that her Tea Shop Productions partners, James Harris and Mark Lane, shut Darby out of the film’s net profit participation, an unflattering narrative that Focus no doubt hopes to obscure with this announcement.
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