despite the controversy, the appointment of Andrea Riseborough will not be canceled

The British actress is nominated in the best actress category even though her film has hardly been seen in theaters, which is very unusual at the Oscars.

The Oscars won’t override Andrea Riseborough’s Best Actress nomination, despite the unorthodox promotional campaign that propelled the ‘To Leslie’ star into the race for the statuettes, the Academy announced on Tuesday. price.

The nomination of this British actress, who has done the job of stars like Viola Davis, took Hollywood by surprise last week and created controversy.

Because the feature film “To Leslie”, where she plays an alcoholic mother filled with remorse after having squandered her fortune won at the lottery, had not shone at the box office.

With barely 27,000 dollars in revenue, almost no one had seen it in theaters. And the production hadn’t embarked on a costly marketing campaign, a usually key element for films hoping to win an Oscar.

Instead, Andrea Riseborough enjoyed insistent lobbying from industry stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Edward Norton, who raved about her performance on social media.

An investigation by the Academy

Effective campaign or cheat? After investigation, the Academy spared the goat and the cabbage.

“The activity in question has not reached a level requiring the cancellation of the film’s nomination,” the group responsible for awarding the Oscars said in a statement on Tuesday.

“However, we have uncovered campaign tactics on social media (…) which have raised concerns. These tactics are being discussed directly with the responsible parties,” the institution explained.

The Oscars are awarded by the approximately 9,500 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, divided among the 17 branches of the industry.

That of the actors includes approximately 1300 voters: a candidate needs a little more than 200 votes to see his name in the cast of nominees.

mysterious posts

It is precisely these members who have allegedly been targeted with emails and social media posts in support of Andrea Riseborough.

One Instagram post, for example, offered to support the “To Leslie” actress, as American actresses Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis “would be nominated anyway” for their performance in “Till” and “The Woman King.”

But neither star was shortlisted for the Best Actress Oscar, which has no African-American nominees this year. What fuel the controversy over the lack of diversity of these awards, recurring since 2015 and the appearance of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

According to the Academy, “elements of the rules need to be clarified to help create a better framework for a respectful, inclusive and impartial campaign”.

But no changes are expected until the end of the next Academy Awards, which will take place on March 12.