Will playing the Boss be enough to push Jeremy Allen White into Oscar contention?

Between A Complete Unknown last year and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere this year, it’s a great time for rock’n’roll dads at the movies. The four upcoming Beatles movies might be overkill, though. The dads can’t rock out too hard or they’ll spontaneously combust.

Anyway, this weekend was the New York Film Festival premiere of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Matthew Anthony Pellicano, who plays kid Bruce in the film, brought a birthday card for the Boss.

Bruce Springsteen and Matthew Anthony Pellicano attend the 'Springsteen Deliver Me from Nowhere' Premiere, 63rd New York Film Festival

I never really trust kids on the red carpet, because you don’t know how much is them and how much is parental coaching, but whoever thought of that was right, it made for a good photo op.

The film’s stars, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong, were also there, along with Stephen Graham, fresh off his Emmy win, and Gaby Hoffman, who play Bruce’s parents. I like this photo of Gaby Hoffman because it looks like she just heard a really juicy secret:

Gaby Hoffman attends the 'Springsteen Deliver Me from Nowhere' Premiere, 63rd New York Film Festival

Springsteen is going to be a major player throughout awards season, the early reviews are strong enough to suggest the film will hang around for a while. Jeremy Allen White has been an Emmy darling in recent years thanks to The Bear—though after this year’s shutout, I think we can declare their reign over—will playing the Boss be enough to push him into Oscar contention?

Best Actor is shaping up to be more competitive this year than it has been recently. JAW is in contention with Timothee Chalamet, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, Oscar Isaac, and more on-the-bubble contenders like Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent), Ethan Hawk (Blue Moon), Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), and Channing Tatum (Roofman).

And then there is the towering presence of Daniel Day-Lewis, who returns to the big screen with Anemone, which also premiered at NYFF over the weekend. He was there along with his co-star, Sean Bean, and son, Ronan Day-Lewis, who directed the film and co-wrote it with his father. I’m seeing Anemone later this week, so I will have a better sense of the film then, but we always have to take DDL seriously just by reputation. Even if the movie sucks, he’ll get the benefit of the doubt from his peers. It’s barely October and Oscar season has begun!