Voting for the 95th Academy Awards begins today, and as the studios wrap up their vigorous campaigns for Oscar nominations, grassroots momentum has emerged for actress Andrea Riseborough in “To Leslie.” The Texas-set indie drama premiered last March at SXSW and is now available to rent on Amazon Prime and to stream in the Academy members-only screening room.
Riseborough, the prolific 41-year-old British actress, has been around on film and television for more than 15 years, from “Birdman” to “Black Mirror.” In 2022, she was also in “Matilda the Musical” and “Amsterdam,” but it was her performance in “To Leslie” that critics considered perhaps the best of all. “Often a chameleon on TV and film, Riseborough takes center stage here in a raw and vivid performance,” TheWrap’s Fran Hoepfner wrote at SXSW.
In the film from first-time director Michael Morris (“Better Call Saul,” “13 Reasons Why”), Riseborough plays a woman whose life spirals into bad decisions after winning the lottery. The film stars Owen Teague (“It,” “The Stand”) as her estranged son, along with Allison Janney, Stephen Root and Marc Maron in supporting roles.
In recent weeks, it’s been Riseborough’s colleagues in the acting community who have been pushing her chances for a Best Actress nomination. In November, she earned a nomination at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, a positive sign given that “To Leslie” doesn’t have a marketing department or publicity team behind it. The film was released in November by small distributor Momentum Pictures.
But for all campaigns, marketing budgets and word of mouth are different beasts. Longtime advertising gurus admit they would prefer the latter to the former. Over the past month, actors like Charlize Theron, Courtney Cox and Gwyneth Paltrow have hosted screenings of “To Leslie.” Others, such as Sarah Paulson, Susan Sarandon, Debra Winger, and Frances Fisher, have also expressed their support.
And this week, Paltrow, Edward Norton, Mia Farrow, Melanie Lynskey and Bradly Whitford were among the vocal Riseborough fans who posted last-minute “For Your Consideration” tweets and Instagram posts about her performance. Paltrow was photographed with Riseborough, Morris and Demi Moore.
Could the support for Riseborough among critics and his fellow actors really materialize in an Oscar nomination, despite his film’s lack of marketing budget and publicity?
Nothing is impossible. And surprises certainly still happen every year on the Oscar nomination list. But the recent vocal support for Riseborough and “To Leslie” is also confirmation of how challenging it can be for smaller films to gain ground during a crowded campaign season.
Just two years ago, for example, Sidney Flanigan won several pioneering Best Actress awards (including from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Boston Film Critics Association) for Eliza Hittman’s independent film “Never Rare.” Sometimes, Always,” but the film didn’t garner enough support to help Flanigan find his way to the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, or Oscars.
And, of course, the hurdle Riseborough faces has nothing to do with the quality of her deep, gritty performance in “To Leslie,” which has been almost universally praised, with a 98% rating for the film on Rotten Tomatoes. But the long road to an Oscar nomination is a numbers game. As TheWrap executive awards editor Steve Pond noted, if the entire 1,302-member acting branch of the Academy submits a ballot, a performance requires more than 200 first-place votes to earn a nomination.
No doubt Riseborough will receive first place votes. And probably many more than she would have received a week ago, before the grassroots campaign got off the ground. Whether she receives enough to match the magic number of Best Actress ballot nominations to compete with favorites Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) or Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), we’ll all find out when the awards are announced. nominations in January. 24.
