The first step to winning an Oscar is getting nominated and the first step to getting nominated is an awards campaign driving towards that goal. And the good news for Obsession and star Inde Navarrette is that distributor Focus Features is indeed planning a big time campaign!
Variety reports this morning that Focus Features will run an awards campaign in the hopes of getting Obsession in next year’s Academy Awards race, and for starters they’ll be campaigning Inde Navarrette in the Best Actress category. Of course, it’s up to the Academy whether or not she actually gets nominated, but this is the first important step to making that happen.
Variety describes the Obsession campaign as “a wide-ranging effort from Focus Features that will seek recognition across nearly every category the film is eligible to enter.”
“Alongside Navarrette,” Variety details in their exclusive report, “the distributor plans to campaign Curry Barker as a rare triple threat in best director, original screenplay and film editing, the same three categories Sean Baker swept for his best picture winner Anora (which he also took alongside one more as producer). It is a combination of above-the-line and below-the-line recognition that positions him as one of the season’s marquee multi-hyphenate stories.”
Focus Features plans to campaign for Obsession in the following categories…
- Best Picture
- Best Director — Curry Barker
- Best Actress — Inde Navarrette
- Best Actor — Michael Johnson
- Best Supporting Actor — Cooper Tomlinson
- Best Supporting Actress — Megan Lawless
- Best Supporting Actor — Andy Richter
- Original Screenplay — Curry Barker
- Film Editing — Curry Barker
- Cinematography — Taylor Clemons
- Original Score — Rock Burwell
- Casting — Skyler Zurn
- Sound — YJ Gold (production sound mixer) and Ben Zarai (supervising sound editor, rerecording mixer)
- Makeup and Hairstyling — Allie Shehorn (makeup and hair department head)
- Production Design — Vivian Gray
The 99th Oscars will take place Sunday, March 14, 2027. Preliminary voting begins in December, with the event’s nominations announcement expected on Thursday, January 21, 2027.
The horror genre has historically been ignored by the Academy over the years, but that seems to be changing in recent years. This year’s ceremony included major wins for both Sinners and Weapons, which suggests the tides could be turning. Will Obsession end up securing nominations and perhaps even wins of its own next year? We’ll find out in the coming months.
