Andrea Riseborough Photo: Jason Mendes (Getty Images)
Following Andrea Riseborough’s shock Oscar nomination for her performance in To Leslie, which initially made $27,000 during its quiet run last fall, the film will return to theaters now that there is renewed interest in the project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it will be re-released in “approximately six” locations in North America, followed by additional theaters in the UK.
While top Oscar contenders usually advertise their work months before awards season, the English-born Birdman actor began campaigning in earnest only weeks ago, just as nomination voting began. Word-of-mouth support and social media posts from Hollywood stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Minnie Driver and Demi Moore appeared overnight, and it was enough to earn Riseborough a spot at yesterday’s announcement of this year’s nominees. Leslie’s recognition may be a victory for low-key releases that don’t have huge awards budgets behind them, but the campaign has also been criticized for seemingly hindering Viola Davis and Daniel Deadweiler’s chances of success.
Directed by Michael Morris, To Leslie follows Riseborough as a Texas single mother and former lottery winner who struggles to reconnect with her son. The film was distributed by Momentum Pictures, whose co-star Marc Maron criticized the awards game for “gross incompetence”. (Somewhere in the infinite multiverse, there’s a timeline where Gwyneth Paltrow and Edward Norton teamed up to earn Aubrey Plaza an Oscar nomination for Black Bear.)
While The Hollywood Reporter isn’t saying where the handful of theaters where To Leslie is being re-released are, more people will soon decide for themselves whether this is a small movie with a big heart on the big screen.
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