“Given this review, it is clear that the components of the regulations need to be clarified to help create a better framework for a respectful, inclusive and impartial campaign,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement, adding that changes will be implemented after the conclusion of this award cycle.
While Riseborough’s performance as a struggling alcoholic after winning the lottery in “To Leslie” garnered praise from critics, he made little impression on his own, winning less than $28,000 during its limited theatrical run.
The 41-year-old English actress surprised the public by get a best actress nomination last week, alongside Ana de Armas, Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh, who drew attention to the unusual drive behind him.
Just as voting for the Oscar nominations began, dozens of notable actors began sharing praise for the low-budget film and its lead performance on their personal social media accounts. Actress Mary McCormack, wife of “To Leslie” director Michael Morris, reportedly coordinated much of the effort by personally encouraging people to see and share their thoughts online.
Many posts contained similar language, including the now-viral phrase describing “To Leslie” as “a little movie with a giant heart.” Gwyneth Paltrow posted a photo on instagram of herself alongside Demi Moore, Morris and Riseborough, of whom she said “should win every award there is and every one yet to be invented.” edward norton wrote in a weird post that Riseborough gave “the most engaged, emotionally deep and physically harrowing performance I have seen in a long time.” (Although Norton previously mentioned via a representative who did not post in regards to the Oscars).
Blanchett, herself a top Oscar contender, even gave a greeting to Riseborough in his Critics Choice Awards speech.
Riseborough has worked steadily for the past two decades, appearing in the Oscar-winning black comedy “Birdman,” a political satire.Stalin’s death” and various horror movies. While actors often praise their peers in public spaces, posts about her performance in “To Leslie” spiked the second week of January, just in time for the Oscar nomination voting period. Actress Frances Fisher went so far as to share several posts about Riseborough, at one point addressing the acting branch of the Academy directly and writing a detailed description of the voting process.
TCM host and Entertainment Weekly awards correspondent Dave Karger said that while he believed the Riseborough nomination controversy was overblown, the Academy “is smart to deal with this and understand how social media changes the game.” . Matthew Belloni, former editorial director of the Hollywood Reporter and co-founder of media company Puck, called the organization’s tackling Oscar campaigns in the age of social media “the greatest legacy” of the debacle.
“There’s a whole economy around the Oscars, and it’s all based on the legitimacy of the awards,” Belloni said. “If awards are tainted by this specter of cronyism, that has an impact on their legitimacy. That’s something the Academy should care about.”
Of course, he added, “there’s been cronyism at the Oscars since, literally, the second year they were on.”
The Academy has become more transparent about its inner workings since the #OscarsTanBlanco backlash in 2015, a year after which the board of governors announced his goal double the number of “women and diverse members” on the voting body. Last year, the organization elected Janet Yang, who was described in a press release at the time as “instrumental in launching and elevating various Academy initiatives on membership recruitment, governance and equity, diversity and inclusion.”
Much of the criticism leveled at Riseborough’s nomination framed it as a slight against Viola Davis (“the king woman”) and Danielle Deadwyler (“until”), who were nominated for major pioneering awards. Multiple industry insiders argued that while the Academy certainly has a ways to go regarding its recognition of black talent, that’s a separate conversation from Riseborough’s.
“With all these high-profile awards shows being televised and reported, even casual movie fans have become conditioned to the [idea] that at a certain point, certain artists have earned a place in the Oscar race,” Karger said. “These are all different voting bodies and different people. Just because a person has gotten three other nominations doesn’t mean he’ll automatically get the fourth.”
The Oscars use a ranked-choice voting system in which Academy members list award nominees in order of preference. This can allow for narrow margins between those who get a nomination and those who are left out. If the vast majority of voters ranked Blanchett (“Tar”) or favorite partner Yeoh (“Everything everywhere at once”) as her No. 1 pick for best actress, for example, the threshold for landing one of the remaining three spots would have been pretty low. With a small number of votes making a difference, there’s no guarantee Davis or Deadwyler will come in sixth; Riseborough could have easily “ousted” contenders like Olivia Colman (“empire of light”) or Jennifer Lawrence (“raised causeway”).
Riseborough has somehow become the scapegoat for the Academy’s own failings, suggested Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women and Hollywood, an initiative that advocates for gender diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry. Silverstein described Riseborough as an actress who “has worked for decades under the surface of the recognition she deserves,” saying it’s unfortunate that this has happened “in a year with incredibly extraordinary black women in leading roles.”
In an ideal world, according to Silverstein, there would be room for more actresses to be recognized.
“It’s a multi-billion dollar game,” he said, “and we’re all a part of it.”
