Andrew Scott is your co-leader

As an award season nerd, I am living right now for all the Oscar conversations that are happening online. It’s October, we still have five months to go, maybe it’s too much too soon and the fatigue will set in even sooner but right now, it’s fun. It’s fun when the speculation takes an unexpected turn. It’s fun to overhype what a film’s momentum could mean and whether or not that buzz could challenge a presumed favourite. It’s fun especially when such a strong favourite emerged in the summer and it would be boring if it could sail, unchallenged, all the way to Oscar glory.

Because that’s what happened in July when Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was released, right? Advance tickets for IMAX 70mm screenings were sold out a year in advance, fueling demand for more 70mm screens overall. In terms of box office and critical acclaim and impact on the industry, The Odyssey seemed to have it all, and if there was a film that might go head-to-head with it, at the time it was thought that maybe it could be Dune: Part 3. But now?

Well, the internet is trying to boost the fortunes of two unlikely contenders, the Davids to The Odyssey’s Goliath: La Bola Negra, an historical queer melodrama from Spain, and a documentary about a tech scammer that nobody knew existed until it surprise-dropped in Telluride, You Can See Everything. Both films opened in theatres this weekend. And both films are dominating film social media right now.

You Can See Everything is officially submitting in the Best Picture category, aiming to be the first documentary to ever be nominated for the Academy’s biggest prize. La Bola Negra right now is a lock for the Best International Feature Oscar win and experts are predicting that the film’s nomination total could exceed ten, and reach as high as 14. Just last week it soared into second place on many prediction lists, just behind The Odyssey. The comment sections and the Reddit boards are busy right now, with people debating whether or not either one of these two could pull off a dark horse upset and, at least this week, nobody is even thinking about Dune. Or Wild Horse Nine… which is wildddd considering how Wild Horse Nine played at the festivals!

Is all of it overblown? Will the preferential ballot system inevitably reward the big budget studio feature with the big name actors? Probably, I don’t know, maybe, definitely? That’s not the point at the moment. Like I said, at the moment, it’s just fun. It’s just fun when there are possibilities, and not a foregone conclusion. And the same is true in three of the four acting categories.

If there is a lock, it’s Julianne Moore for Best Actress. But there are real races everywhere else. What’s exciting is that Andrew Scott is considered, alongside John Malkovich, a frontrunner in the Best Actor category for his performance in Elsinore. Andrew, John, and Matt Damon are leading the field, but the other two spots for best actor are being tightly contested between John Turturro, Ryan Gosling, Robert Pattinson, Pedro Pascal, Jafar Jackson, and yes Tom Cruise actually still has a chance.

There’s been some talk the last few days that Andrew could actually get a double – two nominations in the same category for two separate performances. The other performance people are referring to is in the film, Pressure, which was released earlier this year. Mathematically, sure, but realistically? No way. This is nonsense. The campaign focus should be and is on Elsinore. Because if there is a weakness in Andrew’s campaign it’s that Elsinore is not a Best Picture contender, and John Malkovich has that advantage with Wild Horse Nine – plus the “overdue” narrative given his long career. So the strategy for Andrew has to be singular: Elsinore only, and honestly I don’t even think this was a question in the war room for him and his team. Whoever is advancing this possibility that he’d be going for a double is full of sh-t. Oh wait, it’s the Daily Mail, LOL.

Here’s Andrew in red leather in NYC last night where the film screened at the New York LGBTQ Film Festival and at God's Love We Deliver Golden Hearts Awards earlier in the evening.