Oscars 2023: How the controversy around Andrea Riseborough’s nomination could change the way campaigning works
By the time the Academy Awards rolls out the red carpet each year, most stars in the running have spent months travelling the world, attending premieres and screenings, and schmoozing with industry VIPs to promote their films and themselves.
Oscars campaigning is a multimillion-dollar industry. While the Academy has strict rules to help ensure standout films and performances win fair and square, this year’s unexpected nomination of Andrea Riseborough in the best actress category has sparked debate about how the process works.
In the wake of the controversy, Academy president Janet Yang told Sky News campaigning rules will be revisited again following this year’s ceremony, with the “changing environment” of social media in particular to be looked at. “We are going to buckle down and look very closely at the regulations that have been with us for a while,” she said. “There are a lot of things that weren’t addressed in the current campaign regulations that we feel need to be addressed now.”
How does campaigning work?
Pic: AMPAS
Campaigning can include everything from advertising to red carpets to placing actors for the right interviews, all to build the narrative that a film and its stars are Oscar-worthy. Why do film studios do it? Well, there were 301 films eligible for this year’s Oscars – they need to get their films noticed.
The Academy has strict rules around “the annual rite” of campaigning, which include limitations on the number of mailings that studios can send, and also on promotional items, lobbying and parties.
Nominees are, unsurprisingly, banned from making negative or derogatory statements about their rivals in public. Penalties for those who breach the rules can include disqualification and any existing member of the Academy (typically a previous winner) could face suspension or expulsion.
Life on the campaign trail
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Everything Everywhere star on Oscars nod
At a reception for Oscar nominees held in London in February, a few days after an Oscars luncheon in LA, The Banshees Of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon rubbed shoulders with fellow acting nominees including Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, as well as industry bigwigs.
“It’s crazy!” Condon said when asked about the work that goes on in the run-up. “It’s like a whole other skill that you have to be good at, chatting to people and getting your picture taken and all sorts of things you wouldn’t think of as an actor. And you have to get good at them fast.”
For some, this is all good fun. Take Everything Everywhere All At Once star Quan, who has made no secret of his excitement. “The audience embracing the movie the way they did is beyond anything we ever imagined,” he said. “I’m enjoying awards season very much… it’s been a wild ride.”
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L-R: Filmmakers Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, David Seidler, Tom Hooper and Gareth Ellis-Unwin pose with their Oscars for The King’s Speech in 2011. Pic: AP/Chris Carlson
But it can be hard work. Producer Gareth Ellis-Unwin picked up his best picture Oscar for The King’s Speech in 2011 and is now an Academy Awards (and BAFTAs) voter. “It surprised me,” he says of the campaign for the film, which lasted for more than three months. “It was like running for local office.”
In 2016, former winner Susan Sarandon spoke out against the process, likening it to the race to become US president in terms of the cost and length. Speaking on a panel at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, she called for a reform to campaign finance. “People have to be available for months and someone has to pay for that,” she said.
Twelve years on from his win, Ellis-Unwin, who is now head of film and animation at the charity Screen Skills, says things are changing.
“Now you can bring a focus to a film project or TV show and not have the same marketing spend you had 10 years ago. Our distributors joked that it cost something like $30m to market our film for the award ceremony, which is twice the budget for the film.”
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Colin Farrell: Oscars ‘icing on the cake’
Why was Riseborough’s nomination a surprise?
The British actress’s nod for her performance in To Leslie – a small indie film in which she plays an alcoholic single mother who wins the lottery – was unexpected because there had been no substantial buzz surrounding her beforehand.
And because black actresses who did have that buzz – Viola Davis, for The Woman King, and Danielle Deadwyler, for Till missed out. While Davis, Deadwyler and others seemingly played the more traditional campaign game, Riseborough’s nomination came in the wake of praise on social media from A-listers including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and Edward Norton.
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There is no suggestion Riseborough herself did anything wrong. But the controversy has raised questions over what campaigning looks like in the future, and reignited debates around opportunity and racism in the film industry.
Shortly after this year’s shortlists were announced, the Academy launched a review to ensure no campaign rules were broken. After a short investigation, the organisation said it discovered “social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern” surrounding To Leslie, but not to the level that Riseborough should lose her nod.
Yang told Sky News it was an “unusual situation” but that no rules were broken “based on the existing rules”.
Can voters really be swayed?
Gwyneth Paltrow was named best actress and Shakespeare In Love won best film, among other awards, at the Oscars in 1999
When it comes to aggressive campaigning, industry insiders say it began with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein; he reportedly started a whisper campaign against Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan in 1999, when it was in the running for best picture alongside his own film Shakespeare In Love – which went on to win. The Academy has since tightened its campaigning rules.
Addressing the Riseborough controversy, Jenelle Riley, features editor for US entertainment publication Variety, says there is a “whole industry devoted to campaigning” but Academy voters will ultimately choose the films and stars they believe are worthy.
“The Academy is going to do what they want to do and they’re going to vote for what they want,” she says. “Nobody can force you to check off her name on a ballot. If people voted for her, it’s because they want to.
“Anyone who has seen To Leslie is not going to argue that she didn’t deserve to be nominated… the truth is, there’s just an embarrassment of riches. Part of me thinks they should increase the number of nominees.”
Can Riseborough win?
There could be a last-minute upset, but it seems unlikely. Not necessarily because of the campaigning investigation, but because the best actress category looked set to be a two-horse race between Cate Blanchett (Tar) and Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) even before the nominations were announced.
Cate Blanchett, who has supported Riseborough, is one of the favourites to win the best actress prize. Pic: AP/Chris Pizzello
“The nomination is the win” for Riseborough, says Matthew Belloni, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and a founding partner of digital media company Puck.
However, he says he doesn’t believe the investigation harmed her chances. “If anything, I think she picked up some votes because people didn’t like that this campaign was castigated. Members I’ve talked to thought it was ridiculous that they were potentially being punished for this,” he said.
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Future rule changes?
Belloni describes the To Leslie campaign as innovative, having bypassed the traditional avenues of advertising, throwing parties and putting “the talent on a circuit of interviews and handshaking”.
Without a big budget behind them they instead built up support on social media.
Despite the Academy deciding not to take away Riseborough’s nomination, Belloni says he believes the scandal will lead to further rule changes limiting social media activity.
“I think it’s going to change things. I think we’re going to see new rules and it’s going to update the Academy code of conduct for the social media age,” she said.
You can watch the Academy Awards on Sunday 12 March from 11pm in the UK exclusively on Sky News and Sky Showcase. And for everything you need to know ahead of the ceremony, don’t miss our special Backstage podcast, available now, plus a winners special episode from Monday morning.
Actress Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.
She died peacefully at her home in California, surrounded by her loved ones on Friday, according to a post shared on her official Instagram account.
The message, posted with a sunset photo of Hussey in her youth, paid tribute to “a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her”.
It went on: “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals”.
Calling her a “truly special soul”, her family said while her “immense loss” was grieved, they would also “celebrate Olivia’s enduring impact on our lives and the industry”.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1951 to an Argentinian father and English mother, Hussey returned to London aged seven with her mother and studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.
Spotted by Italian director Zeffirelli in a stage show of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Hussey’s performance as Juliet aged just 15 made her a star and won her a Golden Globe.
Sixteen-year-old actor Leonard Whiting played her Romeo, with the pair going on to sue Paramount Pictures in 2022 for sexual abuse due to the Oscar-nominated movie’s nude scene.
(L-R) Franco Zeffirelli, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in 1968. Pic: AP/Eustache Cardenas
The case was dismissed by a judge the following year.
Hussey would work with Zeffirelli again, playing the Virgin Mary in the 1977 TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth.
Appearances in horrors including Black Christmas and Psycho prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning established Hussey as a scream queen over the years.
Other notable appearances included Hercule Poirot movie Death On The Nile and Mother Teresa biography Madre Teresa.
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Hussey was reunited with Whiting in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet.
Her daughter, actress India Eisley, played her on-screen daughter in the movie.
It was Hussey’s final screen role, according to IMDB.
Hussey leaves behind three children, Alex, Max, and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, and grandson, Greyson.
Andrew Garfield says he bakes cookies every year in memory of his late mother.
The double Oscar nominee‘s mother Lynn Garfield, from Essex, died in 2019 from pancreatic cancer.
In a conversation about his new film We Live In Time, he told Sky News about the special ways he likes to remember her.
“My mum had the most incredible chocolate chip cookie recipe that I will do every year on the anniversary of her birth and on the anniversary of her death.
Pic: StudioCanal
“So, I will bake them, and we will all eat them, but I’ll leave a few out for her somewhere, you know, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus at Christmas or something.”
The English-American actor says he looks to keep the connection to his mother alive and notes that he has some of her keepsakes in his own home.
“I have her perfume in my house that my mum used to wear when I was a kid. I have it, like, in a very special place. I’ll just like [smell it], when I need it.
“It’s like in the missing and the longing, you actually get closer to the person. It’s a weird thing. As we reach out in grief, we actually feel much closer to the person so it’s this weird conundrum”.
Pic: StudioCanal
‘Leaving a legacy behind’
Garfield stars alongside Florence Pugh in the romance film We Live In Time, which follows an up-and-coming chef and a Weetabix salesman through a decade of their love story.
Pugh says she loves playing “really strong-willed women” and says playing a woman dealing with ovarian cancer allowed her to look at the idea of creating a legacy.
“She’s constantly juggling whether she does something for herself, does something for her daughter, does something for her family and ultimately, she’s allowed to do all of those things.
“I do believe that she is trying to leave that kind of legacy behind so that her daughter is proud of her.
“Just because you are a parent and you’re a mum does not mean that your wills and wants also completely vanish and disappear and you can’t have or want them too”.
Pic: StudioCanal
‘A level of detail and care’
We Live In Time is directed by Brooklyn filmmaker John Crowley.
Having previously worked with Garfield on Boy A, the Irish director says seeing Garfield and Pugh on screen together is magic.
“All that life experience is present in his performance,” he says.
“I wouldn’t say he’s vastly different. I think the level of detail and care that he puts in the work is every bit as much as it was back then, there’s just more there now”.
We Live In Time is in cinemas on Wednesday 1 January.
Elizabeth J. Birch has been a musician for a decade, has won several awards, and loves her job. However, she continues to feel like an outsider in a competitive and precarious industry.
As a wheelchair user, she commonly experiences accessibility barriers at venues, but there’s a more pressing issue – tokenism.
Birch tells Sky News: “While it’s not explicitly stated that it’s tokenistic, it feels tokenistic because [organisations] need a certain amount of disabled people on their board.
“For example, I was once called a poster girl for inclusion.”
When asked how the experience made her feel, she pauses and reflects: “Perhaps it didn’t make me feel like an individual or it made me feel less than human because I was narrowed down to one aspect of myself.
“It’s not about trying to look inclusive, it’s about trying to be inclusive.”
A recent report by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union found 94% of those who have experienced discrimination based on their disability said it impacted their ability to work or advance their career progression.
Nyrobi Beckett-Messam, one half of the sister duo ALT BLK ERA, was diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions in 2021.
Out of the fear of discrimination, she wasn’t open about her hidden disability until only a few months ago.
“I didn’t feel comfortable sharing that side of me because society doesn’t accept it,” she says.
And she doesn’t regret opening up.
“I think the biggest benefit of me disclosing my disability is seeing how it’s impacted others,” she says.
“It’s really empowering, I wake up feeling every morning like the effect I’m having on the community.”
Among other key findings, the Musicians’ Census identified the following areas of concern when it comes to financial security, fair pay, and discrimination in the workplace:
• On average there is a £4,400 pay gap between disabled and non-disabled musicians
• The gap widens a further £1,700 for musicians with mental health conditions and/or neurodivergent profiles
• 27% of disabled musicians said they had experienced racism, compared with 7% of non-disabled musicians
• 73% of disabled respondents said they aren’t in receipt of any state benefits, tax credits, or support
Grace Meadows, head of engagement at Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter, said: “What this report really starkly highlights is just how much more work the industry needs to do to support disabled musicians but also to support anybody who may have a disability to speak up without fear of discrimination or disadvantage.
“And with benefits, really what we are needing to see is a change in what those systems look like so people can get the support they need when they need it.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
A government spokesperson told Sky News: “We are bringing forward proposals to reform health and disability benefits in spring as part of a proper plan to genuinely support disabled people.
“We will work closely with disabled people and their organisations, whose views will be at the heart of these plans.”
Both Birch and Beckett-Messam believe in the social model of disability which recognises that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.
For now, they are determined to stay in the industry, but that could change if it stays the same.
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