What Is Going On With The 'To Leslie' Oscars Push?
A celebrity-driven grassroots campaign attempts to land an Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough
Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie. Cr. Momentum Pictures
LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 24
If you haven’t already heard or aren’t present on the movie side of social media, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. To catch you up, To Leslie hit the festival circuit in early 2022, premiering at SXSW, and was received incredibly well. Made in only 19 days and distributed by Momentum Pictures, the film reportedly lacked a proper budget for marketing and distribution and didn’t get the awards submissions it was looking for. To Leslie did receive great reviews after its festival screenings, with critics calling the film “raw,” and has recently been receiving incredible acclaim from celebrities, many of which are in the middle of their own award season campaigns. The biggest piece of information to recognize is that they’re all praising one thing, Andrea Riseborough’s performance.
On Saturday, Kate Winslet joined Riseborough and Michael Morris, the film’s director, for a live Zoom Q+A, and while moderating, called Riseborough’s performance “The greatest female performance on-screen I have ever seen in my life.” Jane Fonda took to Instagram to promote the film, highlighting the budget, or lack thereof, for the project and how it must rely on word of mouth for a successful marketing and awards campaign. Other celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Charlize Theron, have hosted screenings of To Leslie and are continuing to praise the film. This grassroots campaign may be popping up at just the right time, as the Oscar nomination voting period is now open, and the nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 24.
Do you think this unconventional campaign can find success with voters and pull off a last minute nomination for Andrea Riseborough? Let us know below in the comments or on social media, @thisweekmedia on all platforms.
Update: As of 1/24 and the 95th Oscar nominations being announced, the Andrea Riseborough To Leslie campaign was successful, landing a “Best Actress” nomination for Riseborough. If the campaign continues, it will be difficult to pass frontrunners Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh.
