Can A24 Get Four Films Nominated For Best Picture This Year?

As the fall festival stage of the film year closes and awards season begins to ramp up, each studio’s priorities for campaigning begin to come into focus. Some studios like Searchlight and Universal have clear priority films, but other studios like NEON have to make tough decisions regarding what to push harder than others. A24 has to make perhaps the hardest decisions of all between their heavy slate of well-received festival breakouts and early year hits. With the history they’ve had in the awards space, however, we can most likely expect one film to rise as their priority pick, so which of their contenders will succeed and which will fall?

Since their first nomination with “Room” in 2015, A24 has totaled nine Best Picture nominations, only once getting two in the same year with “The Zone of Interest” and “Past Lives” in 2023. One could definitely argue that their stature has only grown in the years since and we will only see their presence in awards seasons get bigger, but they definitely struggle to juggle multiple contenders in a single year. Even with the 2023 pair, those were two of the most acclaimed films of the year that likely got in from critical support just as much as A24’s campaign efforts. Critical pushes can certainly help them with their crop this year, but the notion of them getting more than two into Best Picture is an understandable hurdle for many predictors to overcome. With their sole nominees in the last two years being “Marty Supreme” and “The Brutalist,” they definitely have found a groove of pushing one film very hard and making it a top contender, while others fall to the wayside. We saw this with “Sing Sing” and “The Whale” in their respective years, where being a second priority for the indie label ended with neither getting into the Best Picture field.

It’s been clear since its Telluride premiere that Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut” is the best shot A24 has of getting into Best Picture. In fact, this film is likely their top contender that they can rely on getting everything it needs. Between the enthusiasm toward Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti’s performances, and the growing respect for Eisenberg as a filmmaker, the film has become one of the must-see films of the fall for cinephiles. Between the mid-movie standing ovations for Moore and the incredibly in-demand New York Film Festival screenings, it’s clear A24 has a major contender here, and they’ve already leaned into this with the cute Playbills they’ve given out at the last few festival stops. The reception certainly peaked at its first screening, but the reviews have nonetheless settled at a very respectable level, and even if the film ends up earning a lone win for Best Actress, it’ll likely be strong enough at every precursor to clearly be A24’s #1 of the year. Some are even considering if the work is so strong that Jesse Eisenberg can get the esteemed Best Director nomination for an actor turned director, which would really be a show of strength for the film.

At the moment, most would rightfully say that Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” is the second biggest contender A24 has. The Sundance premiere was one of the buzziest titles of the summer, and got a lot of audiences excited to see an adult dramedy  back in a theater. For what it is, the film made a decent chunk of money over the busy June and July, and its acclaim only grew as its release widened. For a lot of voters, it may be hard to find 10 films they like more than this, and even with the fall festival onslaught it has maintained strong buzz. For a summer release, there’s still room for this to fall out of Best Picture, especially if its potential acting nominations struggle to materialize, but it certainly has room to stay afloat through the end of the year. Neither the critical scores nor the box office are the absolute best of the year, but it fills a certain niche that should satisfy enough voters, especially if those three or maybe even four acting contenders stay in the conversation throughout the season.

The third priority for A24 would likely be one of the darlings of the fall festivals, Jordan Firstman’s debut feature “Club Kid.” Now as mentioned before, a third priority likely means no Best Picture nomination, as the studio has never gotten three in one year. In fact, no studio has gotten three in since Lionsgate in 2016. It’s a rare occurrence, but not a hard set rule of course, especially when a studio has as strong a slate as A24 does this year. That being said, with “The Invite” already likely being in the bottom half of Best Picture, A24 getting two in that range feels like a taller task. “Club Kid” as a film is comparatively slight and its humor is rather niche and Internet-skewing; this hasn’t stopped it from being a big crowd pleaser, but could perhaps not translate into votes. The best notion we have gotten for this is it failing to place in TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, perhaps indicating a lack of widespread appeal that we could see grow clearer through awards season. It’ll certainly still make plays in Best Original Screenplay categories as well as Debut Director and Young Performer awards, so its voice will still be present all season, it’s just unclear how loud it’ll get. The passion for it exists, but with a film as small as this, it’ll have to prove itself if it wants to be a priority for A24, particularly against the more established stars in their other two films.

While those three films have the most momentum and awards buzz around them, which they’ve been building for months, a dark horse exists for A24 with Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s late-breaking documentary “You Can See Everything.” The film, centered around controversial figure Elizabeth Holmes, has served as an enigma in this year’s film slate, seemingly appearing out of nowhere at its Telluride premiere. The reception has been euphoric since this initial look and its subsequent New York and Los Angeles screenings, with many wondering if this enthusiasm could translate into awards. A documentary has never been nominated in Best Picture, so if this were to be pulled off it would be historic, but that is a hurdle that may be even harder to get over than many assume. The critics’ push would have to be massive and would honestly matter more than any campaigning. A major factor would be how it does at the box office when it opens this week. If it becomes an unusually successful documentary, perhaps this has a path to be similarly embraced during awards season, but it’s certainly the most unknown contender. It could be a major player and get into Best Director, or not receive any recognition outside of the Best Documentary category all year.

While that’s where the list ends for potential Best Picture nominees for A24, it’s worth the success of their films “Primetime” and “The Drama,” two critical and commercial hits that will likely at least pop up at Golden Globes with acting recognition. Perhaps Robert Pattinson’s role as Chris Hansen can get him nominations elsewhere, including a very online voting body like Critics Choice, but with sinking chances for the Oscar nomination, they may not bite. Regardless, with four Best Picture contenders, A24 has a lot on their plate, and it’ll be exciting to see how it develops throughout the season.