On January 24, 2023 many were stunned by the surprise nomination of Andrea Riseborough in the film To Leslie for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards. After much discourse and deliberation, The Academy announced that Andrea would not lose her nomination a week later.
The main question surrounding this nomination was mainly “who is she?” To Leslie only made twenty seven thousand dollars during its theatrical run while other notable contenders such as The Woman King made ninety-three point four million dollars starring Viola Davis. Another strong contender for the nomination was Danielle Deadwyler for her role as Mamie Till in the movie Till, making ten million dollars.
In an investigation done, a grassroots campaign was carried out by Mary McCormack, the wife of the director. She texted notable people in Hollywood such as Edward Norton, Jennifer Aniston and Helen Hunt, and asked for them to promote the film and praise Riseborough’s performance on social media. In this text she mentioned that Viola and Danielle’s nominations were secure so they should focus their energy into Riseborough instead.
Following initial reports of these texts after the nominations, the nomination of Riseborough was called into question. Many wondered if this kind of campaign was legal within Academy rules, within those questions of legality were calls to rescind her nomination because it was gained based on campaigning not merit.
In the official Academy statement, they stated that “the activity in question does not rise to the level in which the film’s nomination should be rescinded. However we did discover social media and outreach campaigning topics caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly.”
To Lesie had a limited theatrical release in October of 2022.
