Is The Studio tackling awards season?

The Studio is still filming scenes for season two in Venice, Italy, and, duh, it just occurred to me that they’re probably doing something with the Venice Film Festival, right? They have filmed scenes at real events before, notably the Golden Globes in season one, but they also recreated CinemaCon in Las Vegas for the final episodes. If The Studio is in Venice, there’s really only one reason, right? Season two is tackling awards season.

It makes sense. We saw the Golden Globes in season one, and how crushed Matt Remick, the studio boss played by Seth Rogen, was when he didn’t get his name called from the stage. But we didn’t really see the campaigning, the planning, the sheer effort studios put into awards season, including launching awards hopefuls at Venice. My guess is that in season two, the fictional Continental Studios has a trophy target, and they’re trying to get from Venice to Oscar.

Madonna was back on set with Julia Garner and Michael Keaton. Again, no word on who anyone is playing, if they’re lampooning themselves or playing proper characters. I don’t want to try and out-guess this, or any other, series, but wouldn’t it be fun if Madonna and Julia are playing a mother-daughter pair of actresses? Like Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, or Melanie Griffith and Dakota Johnson—all mother/daughter pairings we’ve seen at the Oscars!

In these shots, Keaton is once again dressed in a tux, and Garner is wearing the same seafoam dress as before, and Madonna is in a suit of a coordinating shade of pink. Her character and Garner’s obviously have some kind of relationship; they’re coordinating red carpet looks. Mother-daughter, right? Seth Rogen really said, If you won’t make that biopic with Julia Garner, I’ll just cast her as your daughter and call it close enough.