Andrea Riseborough’s Oscar nomination: Paul Schrader will vote for her

Paul Schrader publicly defends Andrea Riseborough’s ‘To Leslie’ Best Actress nomination.

The “first reformed” writer-director shared it Facebook to present Riseborough’s Oscar nominees against Cate Blanchett (“LIBRARY”), Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) and Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”). “).

“He got my vote,” Schrader captioned a photo of Riseborough. “Come on, track me down.”

The Academy launched an investigation into this year’s Oscar lobbying last week after controversy surrounding Riseborough’s late-launching, heavily celebrity-backed campaign. But at a meeting of the Academy on Tuesday, leaders insisted the validity of Riseborough’s nomination, which he will not withdraw but will soon publish updates to campaign rules.

“We have discovered social media and information campaign tactics that are cause for concern,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer. “We deal directly with the responsible parties with these tactics.”

“To Leslie” earned $27,000 in theaters, making it one of the lowest-grossing films ever to receive an Oscar nomination. Riseborough plays an alcoholic and former lottery winner in the drama. The team behind “To Leslie” emailed Academy members directly to lobby for the film’s inclusion, citing reports of Instagram campaigns. However, neither tactic is clearly against the Academy’s voting rules.

A-listers including Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Charlize Theron, Amy Adams, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Paulson, Edward Norton and Jane Fonda publicly supported Riseborough’s grassroots campaign for a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Christina Ricci later took to Instagram to publicly criticize the Academy’s investigation into Riseborough’s campaign, calling it an “elitist” inquisition.

“It seems funny that the ‘surprise nomination’ (meaning they didn’t spend a ton of money on the actress’ position) would bring a legitimately brilliant performance under scrutiny,” Ricci wrote. “So only movies and actors can afford the recognition? I feel like it’s elitist and exclusive, and frankly, it’s very backward to me.”

Ricci noted that Riseborough’s Oscar nomination would be “tainted” by this investigation, adding that he had “nothing to do with the campaign” by speaking out.

Riseborough said Deadline that even he is “impressed” by the nomination. “It was so hard to believe it could ever happen because we really didn’t have a chance at anything else,” the actress said. “Even though we had a lot of support, the idea that it could happen seemed so far away.”

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