'Behemoth' Premieres at NYFF; Oscar Push for Pascal — SkimNews
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- "Behemoth!" debuted as the New York Film Festival Centerpiece at Alice Tully Hall, with Tony Gilroy writing and directing Pedro Pascal as a cellist in midlife crisis who plays different Hollywood scores across flashback sessions.
- Pascal carries the film in every scene with a "quiet, almost silent, reactive performance" — his most ambitious lead role after recognition for HBO's "The Last of Us," and his first Oscar push despite no prior nominations.
- Gilroy assembled nine composers — James Newton Howard, Michael Giacchino, Alan Silvestri, and six others — into "The Behemoth! Collective," though Academy rules cap Original Score submissions at three composers.
- Searchlight is petitioning the music branch to accept the Collective as a single entry, pointing to flexible "K-Pop Demon Hunters" songwriter treatment against the disqualifications of "Birdman's" drumming score and "Arrival's" Richter-Jóhannsson split.
- Gilroy could contend for Original Screenplay, building on his "Michael Clayton" directing and Original Screenplay nomination and his current role as "Andor" showrunner.
- Searchlight will submit Lukas Frank's song "Your God Is Sleeping" alongside the film's December 4 theatrical release.
Why it matters: Searchlight's nine-composer Collective gambit asks the music branch to bend its three-composer cap, while Pascal's "quiet, almost silent" turn must break through five named Best Actor rivals (Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, John Malkovich, Andrew Scott, John Turturro) for a first nomination. Gilroy's Original Screenplay bid adds a third category where the film could compete beyond the actor and score questions.
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