There may be hope for Andrea Riseborough to keep her Oscar nomination for ‘To Leslie,’ given a similar case that didn’t disqualify another past surprise nominee, Shohreh Aghdashloo.
In 2004, the Academy was rolling on a new voting schedule. He had new rules in place for studio marketers that would remove some of the negativity and vitriol from awards season. However, on February 20, 2004, four days before the final Oscar voting deadline, a print advertisement in an issue of the Daily The variety centered on Shohreh Aghdashloo’s powerful turn in “House of Sand and Fog” (2003).
The ad used four excerpts from print and television news stories praising the supporting actress. Three of them referred to Renee Zellweger as “will win” and Aghdashloo as “should win”.
Bruce Davis, the Academy’s executive director at the time, called it “attack publicity”.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, then head of DreamWorks, and Terry Press, the studio’s chief marketing officer, both issued apologies following the review, with the former telling the Los Angeles Times, “We made a very serious mistake and misguided”.
Aghdashloo then lost the Oscar to Renee Zellweger for “Cold Mountain” (2003).
While no official complaints have been filed regarding Riseborough’s nomination to the Academy, sources and insiders have expressed negativity, accusing his side of breaking Academy campaign rules. An Instagram post from the “To Leslie” account was among the possible violations. He cited Richard Roeper’s Top 10 Movies of 2022 that mention Cate Blanchett’s performance in “Tár,” which breaks rule #1. 11, which reads in part, “Any tactics that refer to ‘the competition’ by name or title are expressly prohibited.” The post has since been removed.
If Riseborough’s campaign violates Academy rules, the organization could revoke the nomination, which has only happened nine times in Oscar history, but never for an acting performance.
According to sources, the Academy’s Board of Governors was already scheduled to meet this Tuesday and will include Riseborough’s nomination as part of the agenda.