Dear Gossips,
Bradley Cooper has spent the last few weeks since the strike ended promoting his film Maestro. Just as few days ago he and Carey Mulligan were screening the film in London, campaigning for those BAFTA votes.
Yesterday, however, an unusual and unofficial campaign stop: working at a food truck, his own food truck. Bradley was seen with an apron on serving Philly cheesesteaks at the Danny & Coop pop-up. He and his partner, Danny DiGiampietro, both from Philadelphia, are trying to open a cheesesteak restaurant in New York. Yesterday was a test of the market. And it went well. I mean I imagine a lot of people were motivated to go for a Philly cheesesteak knowing that it would be Coop preparing and serving it to them.
Maestro, as we know, is in contention across multiple categories in a competitive year for Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Most experts seem to think that it will indeed make it into the BP field but Coop’s chances for a Best Director nomination aren’t as strong. I mean when you consider that the field includes Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ridley Scott, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Justine Triet (winner of the Palme d’Or), Cord Jefferson, and more, it very well may be that the better bet for an individual nomination for him is in the Best Actor category.
Look at all the women on that list of directors though, and that doesn’t even include Celine Song. I personally think that Celine Song should be nominated but, again, with those names and given that she’s relatively new to the industry, it’s a longshot, although the odds for Past Lives getting into the Best Picture race are steadily improving. Still, this is the most women in the director conversation that I can remember. Back in 2020, Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell were both nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, the first time it’s ever happened. I’m not sure if we’re going to see that again this year but in the Best Picture race, it is possible that we could see at least three films by female directors be nominated: Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and Past Lives. Four if Ava’s Origin makes it in there although right now it’s lagging behind on momentum according to prognosticators.
The National Board of Review announced its winners yesterday. Like the New York Film Critics Circle last week, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon was named Best Picture so you could say that, right now, Flower Moon is the frontrunner. The Los Angeles Film Critics will be coming out with their winners this weekend. The field is narrowing, and Oscar nomination voting begins five weeks from today. So that’s not a lot of road for contenders before the holidays to get their messages out, one Philly cheesesteak at a time.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
