It’s the opening weekend of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but I don’t think we can conclusively say it’ll be part of this upcoming awards conversation—outside of a potential Best Visual Effects nomination. So instead of focusing on that amid the hundreds of millions of dollars being made by The Odyssey and Spider-Man, there’s a much smaller film quietly holding its own at the box office, The Invite, directed by and co-starring Olivia Wilde, alongside Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penélope Cruz.

A24 acquired the film of the Sundance Film Festival for more than $12 million, and it has quietly become one of the studio’s biggest success stories of the year. It’s now approaching $40 million worldwide, including roughly $20 million domestically and nearly $16 million internationally. Critically, the film has been a standout as well, earning a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, an 82 on Metacritic, and a 4.0 average on Letterboxd.

Its performance is starting to resemble another Sundance acquisition from A24: Past Lives, which went on to earn Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominations at the 96th Academy Awards.

So, today we discuss The Invite‘s Oscar chances, as well as A24’s broader awards strategy this year. With a slate that includes Club Kid, Primetime, and The Debut, could the studio once again land multiple Best Picturenominees once again?

We also discuss films like The Invite and Past Lives more broadly—movies that live on the fringe of the Best Picture race and ultimately sneak into the lineup thanks to widespread passion and strong overall support from Academy voters. We rank 17 of our favorite (or not so favorite) fringe Best Picture nominees that fit that mold.

Fringe Best Picture Nominations Ranking:
Letterboxd List

On this episode:
Paul Rai
Danny Jarabek

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Credits:

  • Theme music: Eugene Rocco Utley & Karl Vincent
  • Artwork: Danny Jarabek
  • Editor: Danny Jarabek
  • Assistant Producer: Evan Miller
  • Feature Image Credit to A24