Nolan's Odyssey leads Oscars race as festival breakouts chase — SkimNews
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- Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' emerged as the strongest across-the-board Oscar contender after a box-office titan run, with likely acting nominations for Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon plus craft nods, building on his prior Oppenheimer win.
- A24 acquired Olivia Wilde's 'The Invite' after Sundance's buzziest premiere led to a heated auction; a summer release delivered solid box office and positioned Wilde to potentially become the first woman nominated for both acting and directing.
- Neon picked up Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner 'Fjord' starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, though the film went down poorly at Toronto and drew accusations of being too rightwing.
- Netflix acquired Spanish epic 'La Bola Negra' — which earned a 20-minute Cannes standing ovation — granting it an unusually generous theatrical window ahead of its streaming debut.
- Focus Features paid $15m (20x budget) for micro-budget horror 'Obsession,' which broke multiple May box-office records and put breakout star Inde Navarrette in the acting conversation alongside the film itself.
- Martin McDonagh's 'Wild Horse Nine' was Venice's major English-language success story, positioned for multiple nominations following his festival-to-Oscar track record with 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' and 'The Banshees of Inisherin.'
- Studios avoided festival premieres for A-listers including Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, and Christian Bale, fearing bad buzz and embarrassment after recent flops like 'Joker: Folie à Deux' and 'White Noise.'
Why it matters: Studios are increasingly skipping festival premieres to shield A-listers from bad buzz, leaving Nolan's 'The Odyssey' — the rare box-office titan with auteur prestige — as a frontrunner with limited serious competition. For Sundance and Cannes breakouts like 'The Invite' and 'La Bola Negra,' unconventional theatrical-and-streaming strategies from A24 and Netflix now determine whether the Academy notices.
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