Academy ‘currently reviewing’ Andrea Riseborough’s nomination to Leslie

The Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences issued a statement this afternoon, revealing that it was “conduct a review of campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure that no guidelines have been violated, and to advise us if changes to the guidelines may be necessary in a new era of social media and communication digital. And while said statement very carefully made not include the words “Riseborough”, “Leslie“, or “Andrea” (“to” managed to slip in), it’s not hard to figure out what it actually is everything on.

This means that some people close to the Academy are clearly not happy that Andrea Riseborough managed to score a nomination for best actress this week for his movie To Lesliea movie that very many people seem to have seen (apart from some of the famous and very vocal supporters of Andrea Riseborough.) Despite this, the film was about what was described as an “aggressive” push from social media which featured a number of A-list stars (including Edward Norton, Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda and others) who all raved about Riseborough’s work in the Michael Morris film.

Obviously, it’s not against Academy rules to campaign for an Oscar – the “For Your Consideration” campaign is an accepted part of Hollywood’s lifecycle at this point, baked into advertising budgets. of any movie that the studios seem to think he has half a chance in hell of catching a statue. But the are rules on how you can go about it—and while no one cited exact violations Again, it’s also clear that members of the Academy are sufficiently annoyed by Riseborough’s nomination for a very little movie considering they’re willing to seek one. (Among others, The variety has already dug an email from Morris’ wife, actress Mary McCormack, telling various big names in Hollywood who “If you are ready to post [about the film] daily by January 17 [the last day of Oscar nomination voting]that would be great!”)

There is an open question here, then, whether there is something fundamentally wrong with this kind of popular organization of the Oscars. Most of the stars who praise Riseborough’s performance seem to do so sincerely; the problem is that they only did it after being aggressively campaigned to watch the movie in the first place and then were encouraged to express their appreciation as much as possible afterwards. It should be noted that tthe academy has pulled nominations for this kind of thing in the past, although extremely rare. (Musician Bruce Broughton had a song nomination withdrawn in 2014, after discovering he had contacted other members of the Academy’s music branch to tell them about his work.)

It’s not yet clear when the Academy is expected to release the results of its review. Here is their full statement from today:

The Academy’s goal is to ensure that the awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive awards process,” the statement read. “We are conducting a review of campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure that no guidelines have been violated and to advise if changes to guidelines may be necessary in a new era of social media and social media. digital communications. We trust the integrity of our nomination and voting procedures and support genuine grassroots campaigns for outstanding performance.

[via Variety]