Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley won the Best Adapted Screenplay award last night for “Women Talking,” her fourth feature-length film. The award was her second Oscar nomination and first win— she was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay before for her feature-length debut, “Away From Her” in 2008. So she’s been down this road before, and this isn’t her first awards season rodeo. But still, something must be different about this go-round doing the Oscar campaigning circuit, as the actor-turned-writer/director said the experience has marked her so much she’s now developing a project based on her 2022/2023 awards season.
READ MORE: ‘Women Talking’: Director Sarah Polley On Forgiveness & The Guiding Principles Of Her Acclaimed New Drama
“I’ve been developing a project based on my experiences going through awards season — I’m not kidding,” she told Deadline on the red carpet last night. “I know all of your names, and I have all of your numbers; you will be hearing from me,” Polley said, referring to the media, the circus, and the vultures that surround the circuit.
Polley said she inadvertently workshopped the idea simply by talking to other nominees on the award circuit competition. “I’ve had basically a hotline with all the filmmakers and writers in the race, who text and email me things as they happen all night long — I have this informal writers’ room which has been amazing.”
“Women Talking” was nominated for two awards, including Best Picture, but obviously, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” hoovered up nearly every major award last night.
Polley ruminating on a new project will be heartening news to her fans. Due in part to a concussion that took her out of action for three years, there was a ten-year gap between her last film, “Stories We Tell” (2012), and “Women Talking” (2022; though let’s not forget she did direct the TV series, “Hey Lady” in 2020, but it was eight, five-minute episodes and did write the series, “Alias Grace” in 2017).
Still, Polley feels like a big screen presence, and “Women Talking,” featuring the spectacular cast of Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand, proves that a lot of A-list talent are dying to work with her. So, if she’s found her muse on the awards circuit spectacle—maybe a satire about the superficiality of it all—hey, go with god, and we’ll take it.
Listen to Polley expand on the project below, including her amusing thoughts on those that cry when they win an award.