Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by an appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival and on the slate for the New York Film Festival this week, things seemed to be gearing up for a fall release of David Cronenberg‘s "Maps To The Stars." And Oscar talk seems to be happening, particularly since Julianne More nabbed a Best Actress prize on the Croisette for her turn as an aging actress trying to remain relevant. But any awards season talk was seemingly scuttled when the U.S. distribution rights to the movie were handed from Entertainment One to Focus World, with the latter prepping for an early 2015 release date. But don’t count the movie out yet.
Chatting with Vulture at NYFF, Cronenberg revealed that his movie will screen for awards consideration. “They’re going to do a qualifying run —I think it’s in New York and L.A.— so that it will legitimately qualify for the Golden Globes and the Oscars,” he said. “There was a lot of discussion. You know, they really felt that they could do a better job releasing the film in 2015, in January or February. And then, of course, the discussion was, ‘yeah, but wouldn’t it be great if Julianne got an Oscar nomination, since she won Best Actress at Cannes?’”
But ‘Maps’ won’t be the only movie featuring Moore in likely contention. Sony Pictures Classics has confirmed there will be a one week qualifying run for Alzheimer’s disease drama "Still Alice" (our review) in New York and Los Angeles in December. The picture drew some decent buzz out of TIFF due to Moore’s work, and it looks like at the moment, she’s got two horses in the race.
Will one of them cross the line into a nomination? Let us know what you think below. And check out the 22 minute NYFF press "Maps To The Stars" Q&A below via the Maps To The Stars fansite.