Labor Day weekend is often considered the unofficial kickoff for Hollywood’s favorite competitive season. No, not football or basketball. Tinsel Town’s favorite sport is Oscar campaigning. In an effort to build up enough clout and buzz to reach the Academy Awards, studios begin currying favor with the hundreds of organizations to get as many statuettes as possible leading to that big night. Tastemaker screenings, high-end receptions, non-stop interviews, and almost certainly a couple hot wings are all in the near future for Oscar hopefuls. By the time the ceremony arrives, millions of dollars and months of campaigning will have gone into convincing Academy members that their movie deserves a nomination. One studio is already placing a big bet on its breakout star from their massive horror hit. If the actress wins, it won’t be the first time an obsessive performance from a surprise horror hit caught the Academy’s attention.
Videos by ComicBook.com
According to Variety, Focus Features plans to position Obsession star Inde Navarrette as the face of its “full court press” Oscar campaign. The actress has been having a whirlwind of a year after the indie film blew up, crushing previous box-office records for horror and R-rated films. The studio reportedly plans to push Navarrette for a Lead Actress nomination. At 25, she would be the youngest Latina nominee ever. Focus is also expected to campaign Curry Barker for writing and directing shortlists. The movie’s unexpected success even has the studio thinking it could be a dark horse for the Best Picture race.
Misery Loves Company
The Academy’s love affair with horror can be cyclical. Some classic winners like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist set a high bar for a genre that’s often viewed as lowbrow. Just in the last two years films like Sinners, Frankenstein, The Substance, and Nosferatu have proven that modern scary movies can bring home awards hardware too. Thirty-six years ago, another horror movie about an obsessed woman took home accolades for its then little-known star Kathy Bates.
In the Stephen King adaptation Misery, Kathy Bates plays Annie Wilkes, an obsessed fan who kidnaps the author of her favorite book series. Much like Inde Navarrette in Obsession, Bates was able to turn her character on a dime, vacillating between a sweet, mild-mannered book nerd to a rage-filled manic stalker. The similarities don’t stop there. Adjusted for inflation, Misery’s theatrical run grossed roughly $164 million. Like Obsession, the movie didn’t blow out the box office on its opening weekend. It lost the number one spot to Home Alone, but its positive word of mouth kept it in theaters and earned a surprise best actress win for Bates. At the time, a Washington Post piece had Kathy Bates’ odds of winning an Oscar at 6:5, while Joanne Woodward was the favorite to win at even money. Right now, Kalshi has Inde Navarrette’s odds for winning at 4:1, meaning even the gamblers think she’s got a lock on an invite to the nominees’ luncheon.
Inde Navarrette may have to pull double duty for the next six months though. She has used her momentum to land a role as Rogue in the upcoming MCU X-Men reboot, a project that will be filming throughout awards season. Her weeks will be filled with mutants and weekends with Hollywood hobnobbing. The question remains who will be her bigger nemesis, Sentinels or Academy voters who refuse to watch all of the nominated movies?
More Movies
-
Image Courtesy of Sony -
Wesley & Buttercup Reunited
