How Foreign-Language and Indie Oscar Contenders Worked the System
variety.comGregg Goldstein This year’s Academy Award nominations are dominated by films from deep-pocketed studios, specialty divisions and streamers.
Yet as most 2021 indies were sidelined to the Spirit Awards, a few such as “Drive My Car,” “Flee,” “The Worst Person in the World” and “Writing With Fire” managed to score noms in David vs.
Goliath campaign battles.With less funding and smaller platforms, how did they do it? The awards publicity firm worth asking is Perception PR, which scored high-profile noms for indies with Joachim Trier’s Norwegian romantic comedy-drama “The Worst Person in the World” (original screenplay and international feature), distributed by Neon; Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Danish animated doc “Flee” (documentary, animated and international feature), from Neon/Participant; and a actress nom for Kristen Stewart in Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer,” from Neon/Topic.
Several Oscar voters cited the online Academy Screening Room, now in its third year as a great equalizer to catching up with smaller films, but awards publicists still drew some of these home viewers out to in-person events.
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