Dear Gossips,

We are now less than three weeks away from the Oscars and this weekend the Oscar caravan was in England for the BAFTAs, with some notable exceptions, including the team from Killers of the Flower Moon.

Lily Gladstone, who was not nominated for a BAFTA, was back in LA campaigning at two events yesterday while the BAFTAs were happening – there was a screening for the film at the London West Hollywood and then at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts for “An Evening With…” event hosted by Film Independent.

Emma Stone, right now, is looking like the clear frontrunner in the Best Actress Oscar race. But the SAG Awards are happening this coming Saturday and last year, Michelle Yeoh lost the BAFTA but won the SAG, and eventually the Oscar, so until we find out which way the SAG breaks, we can’t call it quite yet.

Lily is the first actress Indigenous to America to be nominated for Best Actress. But this isn’t just about the history, it’s also about the opportunity. As Sarah has written many times over the last few months about Oscar nominations and wins, “the opportunities for women of color, even when they win the biggest, most high-profile award in their industry, aren’t the same as the white women they work with”. She was referring there to Lupita Nyong’o who will mark the tenth anniversary of her Oscar win in two weeks and who, yes, has worked steadily but we haven’t seen her in leading role after leading role, and we certainly haven’t seen her back in the Oscar conversation since. Emma Stone on the other hand, even if she doesn’t win this year, will most certainly contend for another Oscar at some point. Maybe even next award season as her fourth film with Yorgos Lanthimos, Kinds of Kindness, is expected to be released this year.

To go back to Lily then, the biggest question with her Oscar nomination is whether or not that translates to work. And there are some positive signs. She’ll next be seen in the Hulu series Under the Bridge, premiering in April – Sarah posted about it last year. The show is based on the true story that people in British Columbia should we well familiar with: the 1997 murder of Reena Virk.

That project, however, was in production before Lily’s Oscar run. What we’re looking for is whether or not she gets an Oscar boost. And there are some good signs. She confirmed this weekend that she’s attached to a new film adaptation of Yōko Ogawa’s book The Memory Police, directed by Reed Morano, screenplay by acclaimed writer Charlie Kaufman, and executive produced by Martin Scorcese. May Lily Gladstone be booked and busy!

Here she is covering the new issue of ELLE Canada on newsstands today.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Lupita Nyong’o Gossip

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